Morphological evolution of Ceratophryinae (Anura, Neobatrachia)

FABREZI, MARISSA

JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH

Blackwell

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2006 vol. 2006 p. 153 - 166

0947-5745

Body form is one of the major consequences of development, and diversification of body shapes implies developmental changes among species. In anurans, changes in the timing of developmental events, or heterochrony, have been emphasized as a source of variation in the patterns of development that has lead to diverse morphology. Herein, different approaches are used to explore morphological traits in members of  the Ceratophrynini (Anura: Leptodactylidae), a group of frogs with some features produced by overdevelopment. Cladistic analyses were conducted in order to distinguish the shared history of Ceratophrys, Chacophrys and Lepidobatrachus and other anurans. From these studies, morphological variation of selected skeletal features in ceratophrynines reveals the presence of ancient structures _which have been considered lost in the neobatrachian phylogeny_ integrated in particular designs. Thin-plate spline morphometric analyses of skull shapes among ceratophrynines describe Lepidobatrachus as the most distinctive shape. Also, thin-plate spline morphometric analyses among anurans show divergent skull shapes between ceratophrynines and other anurans, reflecting that the skull shapes of ceratophrynines are a result of peramorphosis (increase of developmental rates) and the greatly enlarged mandibles characteristic of the adults. This study represents the first detailed examination of the role of peramorphosis in a clade of anurans. Key words: Anurans, Ontogeny, Heterochrony, Variation, Ceratophrynini