Eucacopinae is an extinct

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

(evolutionary grouping) of dissorophid

temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') or temnospondyls is a diverse ancient order (biology), order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered Labyrinth ...

s. Eucacopines differ from the other main group of dissorophids, the Dissorophinae, in having more lightly built skeletons and more knobby skulls. The subfamily was originally named Cacopinae, but since the name was already established for a group of living

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 ...

frogs in 1931, the name was changed to Eucacopinae in 2013. Eucacopinae is a

stem-based taxon Phylogenetic nomenclature is a method of nomenclature for taxon, taxa in biology that uses phylogenetics, phylogenetic definitions for taxon names as explained below. This contrasts with Biological classification, the traditional method, by which ...

defined as the most inclusive clade containing the species '' Cacops apsidephorus'' but not '' Dissorophus multicinctus'', which belongs to Dissorophinae. According to the most recent

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analyses of Dissorophidae, Eucacopinae includes the basal ("primitive") species '' Conjunctio multidens'' and '' Scapanops neglecta'' from the southwestern United States and a more derived ("advanced") group including several species of '' Cacops'' (also from the southwestern United States) and the Russian genera ''

Kamacops ''Kamacops'' is a genus of dissorophid temnospondyls Temnospondyli (from Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') or temnospondyls is a diverse ancient order of small to giant tetrapods—o ...

'' and '' Zygosaurus''. Derived eucacopines have two rows of bony plates called

osteoderm Osteoderms are bony deposits forming scales, plates, or other structures based in the dermis. Osteoderms are found in many groups of extant and extinct reptiles and amphibians, including lizards, crocodilians, frogs, temnospondyls (extinct amph ...

s running down their backs, while the more basal eucacopines have only a single row. Dissorophines also have a double row of osteoderms but probably evolved them independently because the

most recent common ancestor A most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as a last common ancestor (LCA), is the most recent individual from which all organisms of a set are inferred to have descended. The most recent common ancestor of a higher taxon is generally assu ...

of the two groups had a single row of osteoderms.

References

* Carboniferous temnospondyls Permian temnospondyls {{temnospondyli-stub