Pipidae


The Pipidae are a family of primitive, tongueless frogs. There are 41 species in the family, found in tropical South America and sub-Saharan Africa.

Description

Pipid frogs are highly aquatic and have numerous morphological modifications befitting their habitat. For example, the feet are completely webbed, the body is flattened, and a lateral line system is present in adults. In addition, pipids possess highly modified ears for producing and receiving sound under water. They lack a tongue or vocal cords, instead having bony rods in the larynx that help produce sound. They range from in body length.

Taxonomy

Morphological data suggest that Xenopus is the sister-group of all other pipids, whereas molecular data consistently suggest that Pipa is the sister-group of other pipids.
Family Pipidae
  • Hymenochirus - dwarf clawed frogs
  • Pipa - Surinam toads
  • Pseudhymenochirus - Merlin's dwarf gray frog or Merlin's clawed frog
  • Xenopus - clawed frogs
  • * Subgenus ' - common clawed frogs
  • * Subgenus ' - '''tropical clawed frogs'''

    Fossil record

The oldest fossil records of frogs more closely related to pipid frogs than to other extant frog families extends into the Early Cretaceous. The oldest known crown group pipids are Oumtkoutia and Pachycentrata from the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco and Niger, respectively.
Included taxa after A. M. Aranciaga Rolando et al. 2019
However, a more recent analysis suggests that some of these taxa are only close relatives of Pipidae, but outside the crown-group. Furthermore, the composition of this crown clade depends on whether or not the topology is constrained to reflect the molecular tree.