''Anomaloglossus'' is a genus of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

s in the family

Aromobatidae The Aromobatidae are a family of frogs native to Central and South America. They are sometimes referred to as cryptic forest frogs or cryptic poison frogs. They are the sister taxon of the Dendrobatidae, the poison dart frogs, but are not as tox ...

. The genus is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield (; ; ; ) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations on ...

in northern South America. It used to be placed in the family

Dendrobatidae Poison dart frog (also known as dart-poison frog, poison frog or formerly known as poison arrow frog) is the common name of a group of frogs in the Family (biology), family Dendrobatidae which are native to tropical Central America, Central an ...

(together with other genera in the current Aromobatidae), and is still placed in that family by some sources. The name of the genus, from the Greek ''anomalos'' (=irregular, unusual) and ''glossa'' (=tongue), refers to the unusual tongue bearing the median

lingual Lingual may refer to: * Tongue, a muscular hydrostat on the floors of the mouths of most vertebrates which manipulates food for mastication * Lingual, in palaeontology, the side of the teeth that faces the tongue * Lingual artery arises from the e ...

process, the only unambiguous phenotypic

synapomorphy In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel Phenotypic trait, character or character state that has evolution, evolved from its ancestral form (or Plesiomorphy and symplesiomorphy, plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy sh ...

of this genus. Anomaloglossus parkerae female

Description

''Anomaloglossus'' are characterized by cryptic dorsal coloration (brown or gray). Dorsal skin is posteriorly granular. The toes are webbed, ranging from basal to extensive. The fingers have weakly expanded discs. Many species show large intraspecific morphological variability and lack of morphological characters that would allow easy species identification. The

tadpoles A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-li ...

can be either exotrophic or endotrophic.

Species

The following 30 species are recognised in the genus ''Anomaloglossus'':

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2613882 Aromobatidae Amphibian genera Amphibians of South America Taxa named by Janalee P. Caldwell Taxa named by Darrel Frost Taxa named by Taran Grant Taxa named by Philippe J.R. Kok Taxa named by D. Bruce Means Taxa named by Walter E. Schargel