''Ranoidea'' is a genus of frogs in the subfamily Pelodryadinae. They are found in Australia,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, and two nearby groups of islands: the

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

, and the Louisiade Archipelago. The

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: * Circumscribed circle * Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthr ...

of this taxon is still controversial.

Taxonomy

Species in this genus were until recently placed in the then-

paraphyletic 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 ...

genus ''

Litoria ''Litoria'' is a genus of Hylidae, hylid tree frogs, sometimes collectively referred to as Australasian treefrogs. Description The species within the genus ''Litoria'' are extremely variable in appearance, behaviour, and habitat. The smallest s ...

''; many of them had been placed in even larger '' Hyla'' before. However, in 2016 Duellman and colleagues split ''Litoria'' into several genera. The systematic and taxonomic conclusions based on Duellman ''et al.'' should be treated with caution, because 78.9% of individuals (397/503) used in the concatenated analyses had less than half of the gene sequences available for the 19 genes used. Missing data can be problematic in phylogenetic analyses (e.g.) and lead to erroneous conclusions about systematic relationships. Additionally, there is no mention of checking for base-composition bias amongst taxa (non-stationarity), which can also lead to incorrect tree phylogenies (e.g.). The species now in ''Ranoidea'' were placed in the genus ''Dryopsophus''. However, the oldest available name for these species is ''Ranoidea''. These changes are not yet widely recognized or accepted,McDonald, K.R., Rowley, J.J., Richards, S.J., & Frankham, G.J. (2016). A new species of treefrog (Litoria) from Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Zootaxa 4171(1): 153-169. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4171.1.6 and the AmphibiaWeb continues to recognize ''Litoria'' in the older, broad sense. The AmphibiaWeb also recognizes '' Cyclorana'', a position that, without additional amendments, renders ''Ranoidea'' paraphyletic; it may be 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 ...

Description and ecology

The

pupil The pupil is a hole located in the center of the iris of the eye that allows light to strike the retina.Cassin, B. and Solomon, S. (1990) ''Dictionary of Eye Terminology''. Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishing Company. It appears black becau ...

is horizontally elliptical, and the

palpebral An eyelid ( ) is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye. The levator palpebrae superioris muscle retracts the eyelid, exposing the cornea to the outside, giving vision. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily. "Palpebral" ...

membrane is unpigmented. Many species have

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 that develop in mountain streams and have enlarged ventral mouths. However, tadpoles of subgenus ''Cyclorana'' are adapted to standing water and are often found in temporary water bodies.

Species

The following species are recognised in the genus ''Ranoidea'': Although currently listed as ''

incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'', it is expected that "'' Ranoidea papua''" (Van Kampen, 1909) will also be included in the genus once its range has been properly delimited.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q24813105 Amphibian genera Taxa named by Johann Jakob von Tschudi