Under Construction

Eopelobatinaegroup is extinct

David Cannatella
Containing group: Pelobatoidea

Introduction

The †Eopelobatinae is an exclusively fossil group of pelobatoids that superficially resemble megophryids more than pelobatids in that they are more gracile and not obviously modified for burrowing. The genus †Eopelobates is well known in the Eocene of Europe and North America, and also known from the Late Cretaceous of Asia. Two other genera are known from the Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan.

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

Ford and Cannatella (1993) did not include the †Eopelobatinae* in their definition of Pelobatidae because of uncertainty concerning its relationships and monophyly. Some †Eopelobates appear to be more closely related to the living Pelobates than are Scaphiopus and Spea, so the subfamily may be an artifact of placing a group of extinct forms into a taxon. It is considered a metataxon of uncertain placement, either within Pelobatoidea, or the sister taxon of Pelobatoidea.

References

Ford, L. S., and D. C. Cannatella. 1993. The major clades of frogs. Herp. Monogr. 7:94-117.

About This Page
If you are interested in authoring or co-authoring the page for this taxon, or some part of it (even a species), contact David Cannatella.

David Cannatella
University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to David Cannatella at

Page: Tree of Life Eopelobatinae. Authored by David Cannatella. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Cannatella, David. 1995. Eopelobatinae. Version 01 January 1995 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Eopelobatinae/16977/1995.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

edit this page
close box

This page is a Tree of Life Branch Page.

Each ToL branch page provides a synopsis of the characteristics of a group of organisms representing a branch of the Tree of Life. The major distinction between a branch and a leaf of the Tree of Life is that each branch can be further subdivided into descendent branches, that is, subgroups representing distinct genetic lineages.

For a more detailed explanation of the different ToL page types, have a look at the Structure of the Tree of Life page.

close box

Eopelobatinae

Page Content

articles & notes

collections

people

Explore Other Groups

random page

  go to the Tree of Life home page
top