''Ctenophryne'' is a genus of
microhylid
The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family of frogs. The 683 species are in 57 genera and 11 subfamilies.
Evolution
A molecular phylogenetic study by van der Meijden, et al. (2007) has estima ...
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. They occur in southern Central America (Costa Rica, Panama) and South America. Their common names are egg frogs and Nelson frogs, the latter applying to species in the formerly recognized ''Nelsonophryne''.
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Taxonomy and systematics
As of 2017, ''Ctenophryne'' includes two other genera, ''Nelsonophryne'' and ''Melanophryne'', in synonymy
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
. The latter might represent valid genera, but molecular analyses could not resolve their relationships in a robust way. Placing ''Nelsonophryne'' and ''Melanophryne'' in the synonymy of ''Ctenophryne'' is an interim measure that avoids paraphyly
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 ...
, until new data might resolve the relationships. When ''Ctenophryne'' is defined this way, it is a monophyletic
In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria:
# the grouping contains its own most recent co ...
group that is the sister group
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and ...
to all
other gastrophrynines.
Description
''Ctenophryne'' range from relatively small '' Ctenophryne barbatula'' (female size in snout–vent length)[ The current definition of the genus is essentially based on ]molecular phylogenetics
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
rather than morphology.
Species
There are six species:[
* '' Ctenophryne aequatorialis'' (Peracca, 1904)
* '' Ctenophryne aterrima'' (Günther, 1901)
* '' Ctenophryne barbatula'' (Lehr and Trueb, 2007)
* '' Ctenophryne carpish'' (Lehr, Rodriguez, and Córdova, 2002)
* '' Ctenophryne geayi'' Mocquard, 1904
* '' Ctenophryne minor'' Zweifel and Myers, 1989
]
References
Microhylidae
Amphibian genera
Amphibians of Central America
Amphibians of South America
Taxa named by François Mocquard
{{Microhylidae-stub