''Avitabatrachus uliana'' is the only species discovered so far in the extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Avitabatrachus'', 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 that lived in the

Middle Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ninth and longest geologi ...

. Fossils of ''A. uliana'' were found in the

Candeleros Formation The Candeleros Formation is a geologic formation that outcrop, crops out in the Rio Negro Province, Río Negro, Neuquen Province, Neuquén, and Mendoza Province, Mendoza provinces of northern Patagonia, Argentina. It is the oldest formation in the ...

of northwestern

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. This

prehistoric amphibian This list of prehistoric amphibians is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all genera from the fossil record that have ever been considered to be amphibians, excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted gen ...

was properly described in 2000 and was then concluded to be most closely related to

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 ...

frogs. Hence, it was included in

Pipimorpha 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 ...

. A subsequent phylogenetic analysis confirmed this conclusion, and further suggested that ''Avitabatrachus uliana'' is more closely related to

and Shelaniinae than to Palaeobatrachus.

Etymology

The

name, ''Avitabatrachus'', is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

words ''avita'' meaning "ancient" and ''batrachos'' meaning "frog", so called because it is the oldest record of pipids in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The species is named after

Miguel Uliana --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disamb ...

References

Pipoidea Cretaceous frogs Cenomanian genera Late Cretaceous tetrapods of South America Cretaceous amphibians of South America Cretaceous Argentina Fossils of Argentina Candeleros Formation Fossil taxa described in 2000 Monotypic prehistoric amphibian genera {{mesobatrachia-stub