The Mesobatrachia (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''μέσος'' (mésos, "middle") + ''batrachia'' ("frogs")) is a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

group of relatively primitive frogs. At the end of 2016, it contained 3 superfamilies (

Pelobatoidea The Pelobatoidea are a superfamily of frogs. They typically combine a toad-like body shape with a frog-like, pointed face (hence the German name 'Krötenfrösche', literally 'toad frogs'). Phylogenetically they stand between Archaeobatrachia, pri ...

, Pelodytoidea and

Pipoidea Pipoidea are a clade of frogs, that contains the most recent common ancestor of living Pipidae and Rhinophrynidae as well as all its descendants. It is broadly equivalent to Xenoanura. Description The synapomorphies that define Pipoidea are th ...

), 6 families, 16 genera, and 244 species. Recognized as a group in 1993, the name is contrasted with the primitive

Archaeobatrachia Archaeobatrachia (Neo-Latin ''archaeo-'' ("old") + ''batrachia'' ("frog")) is a suborder of the order Anura containing various primitive frogs and toads. As the name suggests, these are the most primitive frogs. Many of the species (28 in total) ...

and the more diverse and advanced

Neobatrachia The Neobatrachia (Neo-Latin ''neo-'' ("new") + ''batrachia'' ("frogs")) are a suborder of the Frog, Anura, the order (biology), order of frogs and toads. This suborder is the most advanced and apomorphic of the three anuran suborders alive toda ...

. The Mesobatrachia comprise five

fossorial A fossorial animal () is one that is adapted to digging and which lives primarily (but not solely) underground. Examples of fossorial vertebrates are Mole (animal), moles, badgers, naked mole-rats, meerkats, armadillos, wombats, and mole salamand ...

families, including the spadefoot toads of Europe, North America, and East Asia, the parsley frogs, and the Mexican burrowing toad, as well as one obligatorily aquatic family, the Pipidae of Africa and South America. Later studies recognised that the group was paraphyletic with respect to

. The families currently accepted in the Mesobatrachia suborder are: *

Megophryidae Megophryidae, commonly known as goose frogs, is a large family of frogs native to the warm southeast of Asia, from the Himalayan foothills eastwards, south to Indonesia and the Greater Sunda Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, and extending to t ...

Pelobatidae The European spadefoot toads are a family of frogs, the Pelobatidae, with only one extant genus ''Pelobates'', containing six species. They are native to Europe, the Mediterranean, northwestern Africa, and western Asia. Description The Europe ...

Pelodytidae Pelodytidae, also known as the parsley frogs, or rarely, mud divers, is a Family (biology), family of frogs. It contains a single extant genus, ''Parsley frog, Pelodytes'', and three genera only known from fossils. The extant species are found in ...

Pipidae The Pipidae are a family (biology), family of primitive, tongueless frogs. There are 41 species in the family, found in tropical South America (genus ''Pipa'') and sub-Saharan Africa (the three other genera). Description Pipid frogs are highly ...

Rhinophrynidae The Rhinophrynidae are a family of frogs containing one extant genus, the monotypic ''Rhinophrynus'', and a number of fossil genera. The family is sometimes known as the Mexican burrowing toads or simply burrowing toads. ''Rhinophrynus'' occurs ...

* Scaphiopodidae

References

* * . Amphibian suborders {{Mesobatrachia-stub