Melanobatrachinae Noble, 1931, Biol. Amph.: 538. Type genus: Melanobatrachus Beddome, 1878.
Melanobatrachidae — Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in Hedges and Kumar (eds.), Timetree of Life: 358.
None noted.
Southern India.
Prior to the evidence suggested by Van Bocxlaer, Roelants, Biju, Nagaraju, and Bossuyt, 2006, PLoS One, 1: 1-6, Melanobatrachus had been either placed with Hoplophryninae in a putatively monophyletic group (e.g., Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 196; 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: 229) or asserted to be close to microhylines (e.g., Savage, 1973, in Vial (ed.), Evol. Biol. Anurans: 355, Laurent, 1986, in Grassé and Delsol (eds.), Traite de Zool., 14: 744, Dubois, 1984, Mem. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, A—Zool., 131: 1-64, and Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 15). Van Bocxlaer, Roelants, Biju, Nagaraju, and Bossuyt, 2006, PLoS One, 1: 1-6, considered Melanobatrachus to be in a monophyletic group with Kalophrynus and Cophylinae. Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in Hedges and Kumar (eds.), Timetree of Life: 357-364, considered this taxon a distinct family based on its suggested Mesozoic origin. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their study of Genbank sequences, regarded Melanobatrachinae to be the sister taxon of Asterophryinae.
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