Big, Bad, and Beautiful: Phylogenetic Relationships of the Horned Frogs (Anura: Ceratophryidae)

FAIVOVICH, JULIÁN; NICOLI, LAURA; BLOTTO, BORIS; PEREYRA, MARTÍN O; BALDO, DIEGO; BARRIONUEVO, SEBASTIÁN; FABREZI, MARISSA; WILD, ERIK R; HADDAD, CELIO B

South American Journal of Herpetology

Brazilian Society of Herpetology

Año: 2014 vol. 9 p. 207 - 227

1808 9798

The horned frog family, Ceratophryidae, currently comprises three genera and 12 extant species, distributed from the Caribbean lowlands to the Pampean grasslands. Horned frogs are fossorial species that are remarkable in terms of their adult and larval morphology, karyotype, behavior, and other aspects of their biology. In this paper we present a molecular phylogenetic analysis with the goals of: (1) exploring the relationships among the species of Ceratophryidae; (2) studying the evolution of polyploidy; (3) studying the evolution of cocoon formation and larval development duration associated with surviving in semiarid environments; and (4) reviewing the ceratophryid fossil record that could be relevant as calibration points in molecular divergence estimations. The analysis included 11 of the 12 extant species and, when possible, multiple exemplars per species, as well as multiple outgroups. Sequence data were obtained on seven mitochondrial and six nuclear genes for up to 8200 bp per specimen. Our results indicate that the individual monophyly of Ceratophrys and Lepidobatrachus is well corroborated. The monotypic Chacophrys is recovered as the sister taxon of Lepidobatrachus, but with Jackknife frequency