Alytidae Fitzinger, 1843
Alytae Fitzinger, 1843, Syst. Rept.: 32. Type genus: Alytes Wagler, 1829.
Colodactyli Tschudi, 1845, Arch. Naturgesch., 11: 167. Type genus: Colodactylus Tschudi, 1845. Synonymy with Discoglossidae by implication of Peters, 1873, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1873: 623.
Alytina — Bonaparte, 1850, Conspect. Syst. Herpetol. Amph.: 1 p.
Alytidae — Günther, 1858, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858: 346. Günther, 1859, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, 3: 69.
Discoglossidae Günther, 1858, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858: 346. Type genus: Discoglossus Otth, 1837. Synonymy by Günther, 1859, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, 3: 69; Bolkay, 1919, Glasn. Zemaljskog Muz. Bosni Hercegov., 31: 348.
Discoglossina — Mivart, 1869, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1869: 294.
Discoglossinae — Fejérváry, 1922 "1921", Arch. Naturgesch., Abt. A,, 87: 25. Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 7; Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148, 3148: 39-55.
Discoglossoidea — Laurent, 1967, Acta Zool. Lilloana, 22: 207. Duellman, 1975, Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 42: 4; Laurent, 1980 "1979", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 104: 417.
Alytini — Sanchíz, 1984, in Alcover (ed.), Hist. Bioňgica Ferreret: 61. Tribe, applied within the family Discloglossidae Günther, 1858.
Alytinae — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 12. Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 7.
Colodactylidae — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 12.
English Names
Painted Frogs (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 51).
Distribution
Western Europe, Mediterranean North Africa, and Israel, possibly into Syria.
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: 184, provided a summary of taxonomy history, estimate of phylogenetic placement, and accepted the name of priority, which is Alytidae, for the taxon composed of Discoglossus and Alytes. See Dubois, 1984, Mem. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, A—Zool., 131: 1-64, and Dubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 56-68, for discussion of family-group nomenclature (in the sense of including Bombinatoridae of this list). Lanza, Cei, and Crespo, 1975, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 9: 153-162, and Lanza, Cei, and Crespo, 1976, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 10: 311-314, considered, on the basis of immunological evidence, that Discoglossus should be maintained in Discoglossidae, while Alytes and Bombina should be placed in a new family, Bombinidae; Barbourula was not assigned to family. Estes and Sanchíz, 1982, J. Vert. Paleontol., 2: 18, discussed relationships within the group. See also Maxson and Szymura, 1985 "1984", Amphibia-Reptilia, 5: 245-252, and Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 13, for additional discussion. Sanchíz, 1984, in Alcover (ed.), Hist. Bioňgica Ferreret: 61-103, discussed phylogeny of the Recent and fossil species. Haas, 2003, Cladistics, 19: 23-89, discussed the phylogeny of the group and commented on previous arrangements, and suggested, on the basis of larval morphology, that the relationships of this group are Alytes (Discoglossus + Bombina) [he did not address Barbourula, which appears to be a direct-developer]. Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 7, considered Alytinae and Discoglossinae to be subfamilies of Bombinatoridae. San Mauro, García-París, and Zardoya, 2004, Gene, 343: 357-366, discussed phylogenetic relationships of the family based on molecular evidence. Roelants and Bossuyt, 2005, Syst. Biol., 54: 111-126, found Bombinatoridae + Discoglossidae (= Alytidae) to form the sister taxon of all frogs, excepting Amphicoela (= Leiopelmatidae + Ascaphidae), as did Roelants, Gower, Wilkinson, Loader, Biju, Guillaume, Moriau, and Bossuyt, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 887-892. Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 440-441, provided a general taxonomic account and map as part of a much more general and extensive overview of amphibian biology. Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in Hedges and Kumar (eds.), Timetree of Life: 357-364, suggested on the basis of estimated divergence time (late Jurassic) that Alytes and Discoglossus should be regarded as constituting separate families, Alytidae and Discoglossidae. Blackburn, Bickford, Diesmos, Iskandar, and Brown, 2010, PLoS One, 5 (8: e 12090): 1-8, suggested on molecular grounds that Discoglossus and Alytes diverged in the Cretaceous. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their study of Genbank sequences, confirmed the relationship of Alytes and Discoglossus and followed Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in regarding the two clades as distinct families. Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148, 3148: 39-55, recognized an Alytidae with two monotypic subfamilies, Alytine and Discoglossinae, an arrangement that they apparently saw as a political compromise between two monogeneric families and one family with two genera.
Contained taxa
External Links
Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.
- For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
- For images search Arkive, CalPhoto Images and Google Images
- To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
