''Lithobates'', commonly known as the bullfrogs, is a genus of

true frog True frogs is the common name for the frog family (biology), family Ranidae. They have the widest distribution of any frog family. They are abundant throughout most of the world, occurring on all continents except Antarctica. The true frogs are p ...

s, of the family Ranidae. The name is derived from '' litho-'' (stone) and the Greek ' (, one that treads), meaning one that treads on rock, or rock climber. As presently defined, it includes many of eastern North America's most familiar aquatic frog species, including the

American bullfrog The American bullfrog (''Lithobates catesbeianus''), often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is a large true frog native to eastern North America. It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, po ...

, green frog, and the leopard frogs.

Systematics

The name was defined by Hillis and Wilcox (2005) for a subgenus of four Central and

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 ...

n frogs within the genus ''

Rana Rana may refer to: Astronomy * Rana (crater), a crater on Mars * Delta Eridani or Rana, a star Films * Rana (2012 film), an Indian Kannada-language action drama * Rana, a 1998 Telugu-language action film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy * R ...

''. The subgenus was subsequently expanded to seven species in Central and South America in a systematic revision of the genus ''Rana''. The name was previously used by Frost ''et al.'' as a separate genus of ranid frogs that included most of the North American frogs traditionally included in the genus ''Rana'',Frost, Darrel R. (2006): Amphibian Species of the World Version 3
Petropedetidae Noble, 1931
American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Retrieved 2006-AUG-05., Frost, Darrel R. et al. (2006): The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Number 297. New York. including the

and

northern leopard frog ''Lithobates pipiens''Integrated Taxonomic Information System nternet2012''Lithobates pipiens'' pdated 2012 Sept; cited 2012 Dec 26Available from: www.itis.gov/ formerly ''Rana pipiens'', commonly known as the northern leopard frog, is a s ...

. Frost used the name in this sense in the frog section of a North American common names list edited by Crother (2008). This proposed change has since been rejected by others, such as Stuart (2008), Pauly et al. (2009), AmphibiaWeb,AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. eb application 2012. Berkeley, California
''Rana''
/ref> and Yuan et al. (2016). AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/, an online compendium of amphibian names, follows Yuan et al. (2016) in recognizing ''Lithobates'' as a subgenus. On the other hand, ''Amphibian Species of the World'' 6.0, an online reference, uses ''Lithobates'' as a genus. This definition is also followed by, e.g., the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) and the

Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) is an international herpetological society. It is a non-profit organization supporting education, conservation, and research related to reptiles and amphibians. Regular publications ...

. The earliest known members of this genus are known from the

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages: the Aquitanian age, Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 annum, Ma to ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and appear to belong to the leopard frog species complex.

Species

Recent species

These species are recognised in the genus ''Lithobates'': Alternatively, if ''Lithobates'' is treated as a

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

(neotropical true frogs), then this narrower definition would contain the following species:

Fossil species

The following fossil species are known, all assignable to the ''L. pipiens'' (leopard frog) complex: * †'' Lithobates bucella'' (Holman, 1965) (Early Miocene of Florida) * †'' Lithobates dubitus'' (Taylor, 1942) (Pliocene/early Pleistocene of

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

) * †'' Lithobates fayeae'' (Taylor, 1942) (Pliocene/early Pleistocene of Kansas) * †'' Lithobates moorei'' (Taylor, 1942) (Pliocene/early Pleistocene of Kansas) * †'' Lithobates miocenicus'' (Holman, 1965) (Early Miocene of Florida) * †'' Lithobates robustocondylus'' (Taylor, 1942) (Pliocene/early Pleistocene of Kansas) * †'' Lithobates rexroadensis'' (Taylor, 1942) (Pliocene/early Pleistocene of Kansas) * †'' Lithobates parvissimus'' (Taylor, 1942) (Pliocene/early Pleistocene of Kansas) The species described in 1942 were previously placed in their own genus, ''Anchylorana''.

References

{{Authority control True frogs Amphibian genera Amphibians of North America Amphibians of Central America Amphibians of South America Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger Extant Burdigalian first appearances