The Ceratophryidae, also known as common horned frogs, are a family 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 found 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 ...

. It is a relatively small family with three

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

genera and 12 species. Despite the common name, not all species in the family have the horn-like projections at the eyes. They have a relatively large head with big mouth, and they are ambush predators able to consume large prey, including lizards, other frogs, and small mammals. They inhabit arid areas and are seasonal breeders, depositing many small eggs in aquatic habitats.

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

s are free-living and carnivorous (''

Ceratophrys ''Ceratophrys'' is a genus of frogs in the family Ceratophryidae. They are also known as South American horned frogs as well as Pacman frogs due to their characteristic round shape, horned brows, and large mouth, reminiscent of the video game cha ...

'' and '' Lepidobatrachus'') or grazers ('' Chacophrys''). Some species (especially from the genera ''Ceratophrys'' and ''Lepidobatrachus'') are popular in herpetoculture. The oldest fossils of the family are known from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

epoch. The fossil giant frog '' Beelzebufo'' from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

was formerly considered to belong to this family, but is now excluded, but is possibly closely related, alongside '' Baurubatrachus'' from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. '' Wawelia'' from the Miocene of Argentina is no longer considered closely related.

Taxonomy

Placement of this clade has varied considerably over time, having been a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

within the

Leptodactylidae The southern frogs form the Leptodactylidae, a name that comes from Greek meaning a bird or other animal having slender toes. They are a diverse family of frogs that most likely diverged from other hyloids during the Cretaceous. The family has u ...

for a long while. Later on, it has been raised to family level, either broadly defined, including the Telmatobiidae and

Batrachylidae Batrachylidae is a Family (biology), family of frogs from southern South America (Argentina and Chile). Before being recognized as a family, Batrachylidae was included as a subfamily (Batrachylinae) in the family Ceratophryidae; this is the taxon ...

(as subfamilies Telmatobiinae and Batrachylinae, respectively), or as now is commonly accepted, as a smaller family with three genera.

Genera

The

genera are: * ''

'' Wied-Neuwied, 1824 (8 species) * '' Chacophrys'' Reig & Limeses, 1963 (

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

: ''

Chacophrys pierottii ''Chacophrys pierottii'', the Chaco horned frog or lesser Chini frog, is a species of frog in the family Ceratophryidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Chacophrys''. It is found in the Gran Chaco, Chaco of northern Argentina, eastern Bolivia, ...

'' (Vellard, 1948)) * '' Lepidobatrachus'' Budgett, 1899 (3 species, 1 fossil species) In addition, a number of fossil taxa have been considered to be closely related, including: * †'' Beelzebufo'' Evans, Jones, & Krause, 2008 (

: '' Beelzebufo ampinga'' (Evan, Jones & Krause, 2008)) * †'' Baurubatrachus'' Báez and Perí, 1990 (2 species)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55461 Amphibian families Maastrichtian first appearances Taxa named by Johann Jakob von Tschudi Extant Maastrichtian first appearances