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Rhinoderma

Darwin's Frogs

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Containing group: Neobatrachia

Introduction

Rhinoderma is known from the cool, temperate forests of southern Chile and Argentina. The frogs are small, about 30 mm long. In Rhinoderma darwinii, the males carry the tadpoles in their vocal sacs, and development is completed as froglets. Rhinoderma has been placed in its own family Rhinodermatidae primarily because of its unusual mode of development.  Were it not for this, Rhinoderma would be considered simply a genus within Hyloidea, but without obvious relationships to other taxa. No fossils are known.

Geographic Distribution

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distribution of living members of the family Rhinodermatidae

The distribution of living members of the family Rhinodermatidae is indicated in red.

Taxonomy

Ford and Cannatella (1993) defined the name Rhinoderma for the node that is the last common ancestor of Rhinoderma rufum and R. darwinii. The family-group name Rhinodermatidae is redundant with Rhinoderma. This genus is diagnosed by rearing of the larvae in the vocal sac of the male, and recognition of the taxon as a family is based on this apomorphy. The known derived characters of Rhinoderma (Lynch, 1971) do not clarify its relationships.

Other Names for Rhinoderma

References

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

Lynch, J. D. 1971. Evolutionary relationships, osteology, and zoogeography of leptodactyloid frogs. Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas (53):531-238.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Rhinoderma darwinii
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Source "Sapito de Darwin" Rhinoderma darwinii
Source Collection Flickr
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 2.0.
Copyright © 2004 Felipe
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.

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to David Cannatella at

Page: Tree of Life Rhinoderma. Darwin's Frogs. 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:

Tree of Life Web Project. 1995. Rhinoderma. Darwin's Frogs. Version 01 January 1995 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Rhinoderma/16948/1995.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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