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Centrolenidae Taylor, 1951

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Centrolenidae

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Centrolenidae Taylor, 1951, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 64: 36. Type genus: Centrolene Jiménez de la Espada, 1872.

Centroleninae — Barrio, 1968, Physis, Buenos Aires, 28: 165-169. Lutz, 1969, Acta Zool. Lilloana, 24: 276; Rueda-Almonacid, 1994, Trianea, 5: 134.

English Names

Glass Frogs (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 45; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 46; Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 118).

Distribution

Tropical Central America, tropical Andes, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, Cordillera de la Costa of Venezuela, Tobago, Guiana Shield, Amazon Basin, and Atlantic Forest of Brazil.

Comment

Darst and Cannatella, 2004, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 31: 462-475, provided molecular evidence that centrolenids are far from hylids. This was confimed by Faivovich, Haddad, Garcia, Frost, Campbell, and Wheeler, 2005, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 294: 126, who suggested on the basis of an analysis of DNA sequence data and morphology that Centrolenidae is the sister taxon of Leptodactylidae (subsequently shown to be polyphyletic and composed of Leiuperidae and Leptodactylidae, sensu stricto), reported on systematic literature, included Allophrynidae (containing only Allophryne) as a subfamily with a coordinate Centroleninae (containing a paraphyletic "Centrolene", Hyalinobatrachium, and Cochranella), and noted difficulties in the current generic taxonomy. Roelants, Gower, Wilkinson, Loader, Biju, Guillaume, Moriau, and Bossuyt, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 887-892, on the basis of less inclusive sampling, a moderately different molecular dataset, and a different analytical method found Centrolenidae as the sister taxon of Leptodactylidae (in the sense of including Leiuperidae). Rueda-Almonacid, 1994, Trianea, 5: 133-187, reported on the anatomy of Centrolene and suggested that the relationship of centrolenids was with hylines and on this basis considered the taxon a subfamily of Hylidae. Guayasamin and Trueb, 2007, Zootaxa, 1447: 27-45, disputed the treatment of Allophryninae as a subfamily of Centrolenidae, although they recognized that it forms the sister taxon of Centroleninae, and continued the recognition of the monotypic family, Allophrynidae. Cisneros-Heredia and McDiarmid, 2007, Zootaxa, 1572: 1-82, provided a detailed discussion of the evidence/characters underyling the taxonomy of Centrolenidae and provided modifications to diagnoses and the general taxonomy suggested originally by Ruiz-Carranza and Lynch, 1991, Lozania, 57: 1-30, and subsequently elaborated and built upon by others. Guayasamin, Castroviejo-Fisher, Ayarzagüena, Trueb, and Vilà, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 48: 574-595, discussed the phylogenetics of the group on the basis of 3 mt and 3 nuclear gene sequences. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their study of Genbank sequences, confirmed the earlier result. Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 453-454, provided a general taxonomic account and map as part of a much more general and extensive overview of amphibian biology. Kubicki, 2007, Glass Frogs Costa Rica: 1-299, provided a key and accounts for all species in Costa Rica. 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, reported on systematic literature, included Allophrynidae (containing only Allophryne) as a subfamily of a coordinate Centroleninae (Centrolenidae of this catalogue). Guayasamin and Trueb, 2007, Zootaxa, 1447: 27-45, also recognized that Allophryne is the sister taxon of the traditional Centrolenidae, but continued the recognition of the monotypic family, Allophrynidae, and arrangement followed here because most of those working on relationships within centrolenids prefer that arrangement. See comment under Centrolenidae. Señaris and Ayarzagüena, 2005, Rev. Taxonom. Fam. Centrolenidae de Venezuela: 1-377, reported on the species of Venezuela. Guayasamin, Castroviejo-Fisher, Trueb, Ayarzagüena, Rada, and Vilà, 2009, Zootaxa, 2100: 1-97, provided a general taxonomy of centrolenids, treating Allophryne as its sister-family, Allophrynidae.

Contained taxa

  • Ikakogi Guayasamin, Castroviejo-Fisher, Trueb, Ayarzagüena, Rada, and Vilà, 2009 (1 sp.)
  • Centroleninae Taylor, 1951 (118 sp.)
  • Hyalinobatrachiinae Guayasamin, Castroviejo-Fisher, Trueb, Ayarzagüena, Rada, and Vilà, 2009 (30 sp.)

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