Scaphiopodidae Cope, 1865

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Scaphiopodidae

Scaphiopodidae Cope, 1865, Nat. Hist. Rev., N.S., 5: 104. Type genus: Scaphiopus Holbrook, 1836.

Scaphiopidae — Cope, 1865, Nat. Hist. Rev., N.S., 5: 107. Error for Scaphiopodidae.

Scaphiopodina — Mivart, 1869, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1869: 291.

Scaphiopodidae — Günther, 1901, Biol. Centr. Amer., Rept. Batr., Part 164: 258. Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 43.

Scaphiopinae — Spinar, 1972, Tertiary Frogs Cent. Eur.: 234. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Scaphiopodidae — Rocek, 1981 "1980", Acta Univ. Carol., Prague, Biol., 1980: 151. García-París, Buchholz, and Parra-Olea, 2003, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 28: 12.

Scaphiopodinae — Dubois, 1983, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 52: 271.

English Names

Burrowing Toads (Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 92).

Spadefoots (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 56).

Spadefoot Toads (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 96).

Nearctic Spadefoot Toads (Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 444).

Distribution

Southern Canada and USA south to temperate southern Mexico.

Comment

Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297, considered Scaphiopodidae to form the sister taxon of Pelodytidae and reviewed the relevant phylogenetic literature of the group. Roelants, Gower, Wilkinson, Loader, Biju, Guillaume, Moriau, and Bossuyt, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 887-892, suggested that Scaphiopodidae is the sister taxon of remaining Anomocoela (Pelobatidae, Pelodytidae, and Megophryidae). See discussion under Pelobatidae regarding the exclusion of this group from that family. Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 8, regarded Scaphiopodidae to be one of four subfamilies of Pelobatidae (Megophryinae, Pelodytinae, and Pelobatinae being the others). Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 444-445, provided a general taxonomic account and map as part of a much more general and extensive overview of amphibian biology. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their study of Genbank sequences, confirmed the placement of Scaphiopodidae as the sister taxon of Pelodytidae + (Pelobatidae+ Megophryidae). Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148, 3148: 39-55, briefly reviewed the taxonomic history of this taxon. Powell, Collins, and Hooper, 2011, Key Herpetofauna U.S. & Canada, 2nd Ed.: 37-38, provided a key to the genera and species.

Contained taxa

Scaphiopus Holbrook, 1836 (3 sp.)
Spea Cope, 1866 (4 sp.)

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