The Mexican Burrowing Toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis) is the only species in the genus Rhinophrynus and the family What does and does not belong to each family is determined by a taxonomist. Similarly for the question if a particular family should be recognized at all. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing a family Rhinophrynidae of order The Latin suffix -formes meaning "having the form of" is used for the scientific name of orders of birds and fishes, but not for those of mammals and invertebrates Anura Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia (Latin salere (salio), "to jump"). Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits (fingers or toes), protruding eyes and the absence of a tail. Frogs are widely known as exceptional jumpers, and many of the anatomical characteristics of frogs,. These frogs live from the southern Texas through Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico, Guatemala Guatemala (pronounced /ˌgwɑːtəˈmɑːlə/ ; Spanish: República de Guatemala, Spanish pronunciation: [reˈpuβlika ðe ɣwateˈmala]) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast, Honduras Honduras (pronounced /hɑnˈdʊrəs/ , Spanish: República de Honduras, pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðe onˈduɾas]) is a republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras (now Belize). The country is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by, El Salvador El Salvador (pronounced /ɛl ˈsælvədɔr/ ; Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally meaning "Republic of the Savior") is the smallest and also the most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as do Honduras and Nicaragua further to Nicaragua Nicaragua (pronounced /ˌnɪkəˈrɑːɡwə/ nik-ə-RAH-gwə) officially the Republic of Nicaragua (Spanish: República de Nicaragua, pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðe nikaˈɾaɣwa] ( listen)), is a representative democratic republic. It is the largest country in Central America with an area of 130,373 km2. The country is bordered by Honduras to the and Costa Rica Costa Rica (pronounced /ˌkoʊstə ˈrikə/ ), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica, pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkosta ˈrika]) is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the. The family was once more widespread, including species ranging as far north as Canada, but these died out in the Oligocene The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene comes from the Greek ὀ.[2]

Contents

Physical description

The Mexican Burrowing Toad grows to 8 cm (3.1 in) in length, and usually has red spots on its bloated body with a red stripe along the center of its back. It has short legs, and a small, pointed head. Its feet have horny, shovel-like appendages which, along with the short, powerful legs, aid it in digging. Its eyes are relatively small, and the tympanum is not visible. Unique among the frogs, the Mexican Burrowing Toad's tongue is projected directly out the front of the mouth, instead of being flipped out, as in all other frogs.

Ecology and behavior

As the name suggests, the Mexican Burrowing Toad is a burrowing animal (fossorial A fossorial organism is one that is adapted to digging and life underground such as the badger, the naked mole rat, and the mole salamanders Ambystomatidae. It is an adjective most commonly used as to describe the habit of living underground, even if the physical adaptations are minimal - thus, most bees and many wasps are called "fossorial), and it spends a large part of its life underground. After a large period of rain, it will emerge from the soil and lay eggs in a water source. They will travel up to 1.6 km (1.0 mi) to find a suitable water source. Due to the unpredictability of rain, the frog will call and mate during any time of the year. It will burrow into soft soil with its short legs once the environment has dried up. The egg and tadpole A tadpole, polliwog , or pollywiggle (also polliwiggle, polwiggle, or porwiggle) is the wholly aquatic larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian, particularly of a frog or toad stages of the life cycle are relatively short. The eggs take only a few days to hatch, and the tadpoles develop over one to three months.

The call is a loud, low pitched "wh-o-o-o-a". When it is calling or alarmed, the body becomes inflated. The Mexican Burrowing Toad eats insects, primarily ants A phylogeny of the extant ant subfamilies and termites The termites are a group of eusocial insects usually classified at the taxonomic rank of order Isoptera . Along with ants and some bees and wasps which are all placed in the separate order Hymenoptera, termites divide labour among gender lines, produce overlapping generations and take care of young collectively. Termites mostly feed on dead plant.

Evolutionary independence

The Mexican Burrowing Toad is genetically unique in a number of ways. According to EDGE, Mexican Burrowing toads are:

"The only species, within the only genus of the family Rhinophrynidae, and with over 190 million years of independent evolution, the Mexican burrowing toad is the most evolutionarily distinct amphibian species on Earth today; a fruit bat, polar bear, killer whale, kangaroo and human are all more similar to one another than this species is to any other amphibian."[3]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rhinophrynus dorsalis
Wikispecies Wikispecies is a wiki-based online project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aim is to create a comprehensive free content catalogue of all species and is directed at scientists, rather than at the general public. Jimmy Wales—chairman emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation—stated that editors are not required to fax in their degrees, has information related to: Rhinophrynus dorsalis
  1. ^ Georgina Santos-Barrera, Geoffrey Hammerson, Federico Bolaños, Gerardo Chaves, Larry David Wilson, Jay Savage & Gunther Köhler (2008) Rhinophrynus dorsalis In: IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. It was founded in October 1948, as the International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUPN), following an international conference at Fontainebleau, France. Its headquarters are located in the Lake Geneva area in Gland, 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1948, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species. A series of Regional Red Lists. Version 2009.2. www.iucnredlist.org Retrieved on May 16, 2010.
  2. ^ Zweifel, Richard G. (1998). Cogger, H.G. & Zweifel, R.G.. ed. Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 87. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0-12-178560-2.
  3. ^ "EDGE: Amphibian Species Information". http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=1355.
Extant anuran Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia (Latin salere (salio), "to jump"). Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits (fingers or toes), protruding eyes and the absence of a tail. Frogs are widely known as exceptional jumpers, and many of the anatomical characteristics of frogs, families by suborder
Kingdom Animalia Animals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently. All animals are also · Phylum Chordata Chordates are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail. The phylum Chordata consists of three subphyla: Urochordata, represented by · Subphylum Craniata Craniata is a proposed clade of chordate animals that contains the Myxini (hagfish), Petromyzontida (including lampreys), and Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) as living representatives. As the name suggests, Craniata are animals with a (hard bone or cartilage) skull in Chordata · Superclass Tetrapoda Tetrapods are vertebrate animals having four feet, legs or leglike appendages. Amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals are all tetrapods, and even the limbless snakes are tetrapods by descent. The earliest tetrapods radiated from the Sarcopterygii, or lobe-finned fish · Class Amphibia Amphibians , such as frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians, are ectothermic (or cold-blooded) animals that metamorphose from a juvenile water-breathing form, either to an adult air-breathing form, or to a paedomorph that retains some juvenile characteristics. Proteidae (mudpuppies and waterdogs) are good examples of paedomorphic species
Archaeobatrachia Archaeobatrachia is a suborder of Anura containing various primitive frogs and toads. As the name literally suggests, these are the most primitive frogs. Many of the species show certain physiological characteristics which are not present in other frogs and toads, thus giving rise to this group. They are largely found in Eurasia, New Zealand, the Ascaphidae The tailed frogs are two species of frogs. The species are part of the genus, Ascaphus is the only taxon in the family Ascaphidae . The "tail" in the name is actually an extension of the male cloaca. The tail is one of two distinctive anatomical features adapting the species to life in fast-flowing streams. It is the only North American · Bombinatoridae Bombinatoridae are often referred to as Fire-bellied toads because of their brightly colored ventral sides, which show that they are highly toxic to humans. This family includes two genera, Barbourula and Bombina, both of which have flattened bodies · Discoglossidae Discoglossidae is a family of primitive frogs, with the common name Disc-Tongued Frogs. They are native to Europe and North-West Africa · Leiopelmatidae Leiopelmatidae, or New Zealand primitive frogs, is a family belonging to the suborder Archaeobatrachia. Their relatively primitive form indicates that they have an ancient lineage. Only four species are known to belong to the family. As the common name suggests, they are only found in New Zealand
Mesobatrachia Mesobatrachia is the second largest of the Anura suborders of amphibians. It contains 6 families, 20 genera and 168 species. This is, of course, not matched to the 5,047 species noted in the Neobatrachia suborder. The name suggests they are moderately old Megophryidae Megophryidae are a large family of frogs native to the warm southeast of Asia, from the Himalaya foothills eastwards, south to Indonesia and the Greater Sunda Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, and extending to the Philippines. As of mid-2008 it encompasses approximately 70-100 species of frog divided between 12 genera. For lack of a vernacular · Pelobatidae The European spadefoot toads are a family of frogs, the Pelobatidae, with only one genus Pelobates, containing four species. They are native to Europe, the Mediterranean, northwestern Africa and western Asia · Pelodytidae Parsley frogs, Pelodytidae, is a family of order Anura. The family consists of just one genus, Pelodytes, which contains only three species. These frogs can be found in southwestern Europe and the Caucasus. The common name of "parsley frogs" comes from the Common Parsley Frog which, because of its colouring, looks garnished with parsley · Pipidae The Pipidae are a family of primitive, tongueless frogs. The thirty species in the family Pipidae are found in tropical South America and sub-Saharan Africa (four other genera) · Scaphiopodidae Scaphiopodidae is a toad family of American spadefoot toads. They are native to southern Canada and USA south to southern Mexico. Scaphiopodidae is a small family, comprising of only seven species · Rhinophrynidae
Neobatrachia Neobatrachia are a suborder of the Anura, the order of frogs and toads. This suborder is the most advanced and apomorphic of the three anuran orders alive today; hence its name, which literally means "new frogs". It is also by far the largest of the three; its more than 5,000 different species make up over 96% of all living anurans Amphignathodontidae The marsupial frogs are a family in the order Anura. The family consists of two genera, Gastrotheca, and Flectonotus. These frogs are native to Neotropical America (= Central America & South America) · Aromobatidae · Arthroleptidae Arthroleptidae is a family of frogs found in Sub-Saharan Africa. They are also known as squeakers because of their high-pitched call. They are small, less than 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in length, terrestrial frogs found mostly in leaf litter on the forest floor. They completely bypass any aquatic stage, and therefore do not have tadpoles. They lay · Brachycephalidae · Bufonidae Bufonidae is the family of the true toads, members of the order Anura . They are the only family of anurans all members of which are known as "toads." The bufonids now comprise more than 35 genera, Bufo being the most widespread and well known · Centrolenidae · Craugastoridae Craugastoridae is a family of frogs which consists of 2 genera with a disjunct distribution: Craugastor and Haddadus · Dendrobatidae Poison dart frog is the common name of a group of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae which are native to Central and South America. Unlike most frogs, these species are active during the day and often exhibit brightly-colored bodies. Although all wild dendrobatids are at least somewhat toxic, levels of toxicity vary considerably from one species to · Heleophrynidae The Heleophrynidae, is a family of order Anura, commonly known as ghost frogs. The family consists of a single genus, Heleophryne, and six species. Ghost frogs live in swift-moving mountain streams in South Africa. The common name of "ghost frogs" may have been coined because of their occurrence in Skeleton Gorge · Hemiphractidae · Hemisotidae The shovelnose frogs are nine species of frog in the genus, Hemisus, the only genus in the Family Hemisotidae. They are found in tropical and subtropical sub-Saharan Africa. The shovelnose frogs are moderate sized frogs, reaching a length of 8 centimetres . They are round-bodied, with short legs. Their head is small and narrow, with a hard, · Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as "tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semi-aquatic · Hyperoliidae Hyperoliidae is a family of small to medium sized, brightly colored, frogs which contains more than 250 species in 19 genera. Seventeen genera are native to sub-Saharan Africa . In addition,the monotypic genus Tachycnemis occurs on the Seychelles Islands, and the genus Heterixalus is endemic to Madagascar · Leptodactylidae Leptodactylidae is a diverse family of frogs that probably diverged from other hyloids during the Cenozoic era, or possibly at the end of the Mesozoic. There are roughly 50 genera, one of which is Eleutherodactylus, the largest vertebrate genus, with over 700 species. In total, there are approximately 1100 leptodactylid species, most of which are · Mantellidae Mantellidae is a family of the order Anura. These frogs are found only in Madagascar and Mayotte · Microhylidae Microhylidae is a geographically widespread family of frogs. There are 413 species in 69 genera and nine subfamilies, which is the largest number of genera of any frog family · Myobatrachidae · Petropedetidae · Ranidae · Rhacophoridae · Rhinodermatidae · Sooglossidae

Categories: IUCN Red List least concern species | Animals described in 1841 | Frogs by classification | Fauna of Costa Rica | Fauna of El Salvador | Fauna of Honduras | Fauna of Mexico | Fauna of Nicaragua | Fauna of the U.S. Rio Grande Valleys | Amphibians of Guatemala

 

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