Phenotypic Variation through Ontogeny: Ceratophryid Frogs as a Model

FABREZI, MARISSA; QUINZIO, SILVIA INÉS; GOLDBERG, JAVIER; CRUZ, JULIO CÉSAR; CHULIVER PEREYRA, MARIANA; WASSERSUG, RICHARD

Essential for Life Sciences

John Wiley & Sons

Año: 2019 p. 1 - 8

1476-9506

The South American frogs of the family Ceratophryidae (three genera, twelve extant species) display unusual larval diversity and developmental variation despite rather similar adults. Many adult features of ceratophryids are associated with terrestrial/fossorial habits and resistance to desiccation; however, adults of the genus Lepidobatrachus are aquatic. Morphological novelties have evolved in the ceratophryid feeding mechanism that makes them capable of feeding on exceptionallarge prey (i.e. megalophagy). Lepidobatrachus is unusual in having less ecomorphological differences between its larvae and adults than virtually all other anurans. Some unique features are differentiated in the tadpole and then exaggeratedin the adult (e.g., a posterior displaced jaw articulation) in a manner unseen in other anurans. Both the larvae and the frog are similarly able to capture large prey underwater. The article reviews how shifts in developmental patterns have led to a novel way of life for both larval and adult Lepidobatrachus spp.