List of Anuran families

This list of Anuran families shows all extant families of Anura. Anura is the name of an order of animals in the class Amphibia that includes frogs and toads. More than 5,000 species are described in the order. The living anurans are typically divided into three suborders: Archaeobatrachia, Mesobatrachia, and Neobatrachia. This classification is based on such morphological features as the number of vertebrae, the structure of the pectoral girdle, and the morphology of tadpoles.

Taxonomy

The archaeobatrachians are the most primitive of frogs. These frogs have morphological characteristics which are found mostly in extinct frogs, and are absent in most of the modern frog species. Most of these characteristics are not common between all the families of Archaeobatrachia, or are not absent from all the modern species of frogs. However, all archaeobatrachians have free vertebrae, whereas all other species of frogs have their ribs fused to their vertebrae.

The Neobatrachia comprise the most modern species of frogs. Most of these frogs have morphological features which are more complex than those of the mesobatrachians and archaeobatrachians. The neobatrachians all have a palatine bone, which braces the upper jaw to the neurocranium. This is absent in all Archaeobatrachia and some Mesobatrachia. The third distal carpus is fused with the remaining carpal bones. The adductor longus muscle is present in the neobatrachians, but absent in the archaeobatrachians and some mesobatrachians. It is believed to have differentiated from pectineus muscle, and this differentiation has not occurred in the primitive frogs.

The Mesobatrachia are considered the evolutionary link between the Archaeobatrachia and the Neobatrachia. The families within the mesobatrachian suborder generally contain morphological features typical of both the other suborders. For example, the palatine bone is absent in all archaeobatrachians, and present in all neobatrachians. However, within the mesobatrachians families, it can be dependent on the species as to whether the palatine bone is present.

Due to the many morphological features which separate the frogs, many different systems are used for the classification of the anuran suborders. These different classification systems usually split the Mesobatrachia suborder.

Families

Archaeobatrachia - four families, six genera, 27 species
Family	Genera	Common names	Example species	Example photo
Ascaphidae Fejérváry, 1923	1	Tailed frogs	Tailed frog (Ascaphus truei)
Bombinatoridae Gray, 1825	2	Fire-belly toads	European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina)
Discoglossidae Günther, 1858	2	Painted frogs or disc-tongued frogs	Portuguese or Iberian painted frog (Discoglossus galganoi)
Leiopelmatidae Mivart, 1869	1	New Zealand primitive frogs	Hochstetters frog (Leiopelma hochstetteri)
Mesobatrachia - six families, 21 genera, 168 species
Family	Genera	Common names	Example species	Example photo
Megophryidae Bonaparte, 1850	11	Litter frogs or short-legged toads	Long-nosed horned frog (Megophrys nasuta)
Pelobatidae Bonaparte, 1850	1	European spadefoot toads	Common spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus)
Pelodytidae Bonaparte, 1850	1	Parsley frogs	Common parsley frog (Pelodytes punctatus)
Pipidae Gray, 1825	5	Tongueless frogs or clawed frogs	African dwarf frog (Hymenochirus boettgeri)
Rhinophrynidae Günther, 1859	1	Mexican burrowing toad	Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis)
Scaphiopodidae Cope, 1865	2	American spadefoot toads	Western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii)
Neobatrachia - 21 families, more than 5,000 species
Family	Genera	Common names	Example species	Example photo
Allophrynidae Goin, Goin, and Zug, 1978	1	Tukeit Hill frog	Tukeit Hill frog (Allophryne ruthveni)	-
Amphignathodontidae Boulenger, 1882	2	Marsupial frogs	Marsupial frog (Gastrotheca excubitor)
Arthroleptidae Mivart, 1869	8	Screeching frogs or squeakers	Tanzanian screeching frog (Arthroleptis tanneri)	-
Brachycephalidae Günther, 1858	1	Saddleback toads	Brazilian gold frog (Brachycephalus didactylus)	-
Bufonidae Gray, 1825	35	True toads	Common toad (Bufo bufo)
Centrolenidae Taylor, 1951	3	Glass frogs	Bare-hearted glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium colymbiphyllum)
Dendrobatidae Cope, 1865	9	Poison dart frogs	Yellow-banded poison dart frog (Dendrobates leucomelas)
Heleophrynidae Noble, 1931	1	Ghost frogs	Natal ghost frog (Heleophryne natalensis)	-
Hemisotidae Cope, 1867	1	Shovelnose frogs	Marbled snout-burrower or mottled shovelnose frog (Hemisus marmoratus)	-
Hylidae Rafinesque, 1815	42	Tree frogs	White's tree frog (Litoria caerulea)
Hyperoliidae Laurent, 1943	20	Sedge frogs or bush frogs	Big-eyed tree frog (Leptopelis vermiculatus)
Leptodactylidae Werner, 1896	49	Southern frogs or tropical frogs	Cliff chirping frog (Eleutherodactylus marnockii)
Mantellidae Laurent, 1946	12	-	Golden mantella (Mantella aurantiaca)
Microhylidae Günther, 1858	62	Narrow Mouthed Frogs	Eastern narrow-mouthed toad (Gastrophryne carolinensis)
Myobatrachidae Schlegel In Gray, 1850	20	Australian ground frogs	Great barred frog (Mixophyes fasciolatus)
Ranidae Rafinesque, 1814	52	True frogs	American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)
Rhacophoridae Hoffman, 1932	9	Moss frogs	Malabar gliding frog (Rhacophorus malabaricus)
Rhinodermatidae Bonaparte, 1850	1	Darwin's frogs	Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma darwinii)
Sooglossidae Noble, 1931	2	Seychelles frogs	Gardiner's Seychelles frog (Sooglossus gardineri)	-

References

• Myers, P.; R. Espinosa; C. S. Parr; T. Jones; G. S. Hammond; T. A. Dewey (2006). "Order Anura (frogs and toads)". The Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved 2006-05-13.

• Frost, Darrel (2004). "Anura Merrem, 1820". Amphibian Species of the World 3.0, an Online Reference. The American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2006-05-13.

• Duellman, William E.; Linda Trueb (1994). Biology of Amphibians. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4780-X.

• Cannatella, David; Ford, Linda; Bockstanz, Lori (1995). "Neobatrachia". Tree of Life Web Project. Retrieved 2006-05-19.