''Sarcohyla'' is a genus 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 in the family

Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as " tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic. Taxonomy and ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and is found in the montane parts of the country between Durango in the north and Guerrero in the south. These frogs typically occur in pristine habitats along streams in pine–oak woodland at elevations between

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. The generic name is derived from the Greek ''sarkodes'' meaning "fleshy" in combination with ''

Hylas In classical mythology, Hylas () was a youth who served Heracles (Roman Hercules) as companion and servant. His abduction by water nymphs was a theme of ancient art, and has been an enduring subject for Western art in the classical tradition. G ...

'' and refers to the thick, glandular skin characteristic of most of the species in the genus.

Description

''Sarcohyla'' are moderate to large-sized frogs. They have thick, glandular skin. Osteological characteristics include enlarged prepollex without a projecting spine and the alary process of the

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammals h ...

that is not bifurcate posteriorly.

Taxonomy

''Sarcohyla'' was erected in 2016 based on molecular data. It contains species that were allocated to "'' Hyla bistincta''" and "'' Hyla arborescandens'' groups" by Duellman in 2001 and to "''Plectrohyla bistincta'' group" in some later works. Its

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 ...

is '' Plectrohyla''. Not all species of the genus were included in the molecular analysis, and there is some concern that the omitted species could challenge monophyly of the genus.

Species

The genus contains 26 species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28042939 Amphibian genera Amphibians of North America Endemic amphibians of Mexico Taxa named by William Edward Duellman Taxa named by Stephen Blair Hedges