Neobatrchian’s comprise more than 95% of all living frogs (and thus the bulk of living amphibians). Until recently, the earliest fossil record of this diverse group was based on a few records from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian). In a recent paper in Cretaceous Research, Ana Báez and colleagues describe several new frog taxa from the upper portion of the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian). Via a cladisitic analysis, the authors nicely demonstrate that at least two of these new taxa are nested well within Neobatrchia, thus demonstrating that these are the earliest representatives of this diverse clade.
December 2, 2009
December 1, 2009
Frog uses indirect-recognition to find offspring
A recent paper in the journal Animal Behavior finds that females of the Strawberry Poison-frog, Oophaga pumilio, uses physical location rather than offspring identity to locate tadpoles in bromeliads. Females of this species tend to offspring that have been deposited in bromeliads by occasionally visiting these little tanks of water to provide unfertilized eggs to the tadpoles.