The southern frogs form the Leptodactylidae, a name that comes from Greek meaning a bird or other animal having slender toes. They are a diverse family of frogs that most likely diverged from other hyloids during the Cretaceous. The family has undergone major taxonomic revisions in recent years, including the reclassification of the former subfamily Eleutherodactylinae into its own family the Eleutherodactylidae; the Leptodactylidae now number 206 species in 13 genera distributed throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The family includes terrestrial, burrowing, aquatic, and arboreal members, inhabiting a wide range of habitats.
Several of the genera within the Leptodactylidae lay their eggs in foam nests. These can be in crevices, on the surface of water, or on forest floors. These foam nests are some of the most varied among frogs. When eggs hatch in nests on the forest floor, the tadpoles remain within the nest, without eating, until metamorphosis.
Fossils of Leptodactylidae have been found in Maastrichtian India.A. Khosla, G. V. R. Prasad, and O. Verma, A. K. Jain, A. Sahni. 2004. Discovery of a micromammal-yielding Deccan intertrappean site near Kisalpuri, Dindori District, Madhya Pradesh. 87(3):380-383 (apud PBDB Navigator)
Classification
As of December 2019, the Amphibian Species of the World classifies the following genera in the family Leptodactylidae: Subfamily Leiuperinae Bonaparte, 1850 (90 species) Edalorhina Jiménez de la Espada, 1870 Engystomops Jiménez de la Espada, 1872 Physalaemus Fitzinger, 1826 Pleurodema Tschudi, 1838 Pseudopaludicola Miranda-Ribeiro, 1926 Subfamily Leptodactylinae Werner, 1896 (1838) (96 species) Adenomera Steindachner, 1867 Hydrolaetare Gallardo, 1963 Leptodactylus Fitzinger, 1826 Lithodytes Fitzinger, 1843 Subfamily Paratelmatobiinae Ohler and Dubois, 2012 (13 species) Crossodactylodes Cochran, 1938 Paratelmatobius Lutz and Carvalho, 1958 Rupirana Heyer, 1999 Scythrophrys Lynch, 1971 Incertae sedis "Leptodactylus" ochraceus Lutz, 1930
References
External links Leptodactylidae, from the Tree of Life Web Project Leptodactylidae taxonomy, from the NCBI taxonomy browser Leptodacylidae classification, from Animal Diversity Web Leptodactylid description, from AmphibiaWeb