A new genus of fossil frog (Anura) from lower Cretaceous deposits in South America

Abstract

The frog clade Neobatrachia or "advanced frogs" represents more than 95% of the diversity within Anura. The neobatrachian fossil record is incomplete due to the small size and fragile nature of their bones but provides some clues on the time and rate of the current diversifi cation of modern-day amphibians. The Crato Formation (Aptian) of northeastern Brazil is known for the presence of, at least, fi ve species of neobatrachian fossils. Herein, we describe a well-preserved fossil that represents a new neobatrachian taxon from the Crato Formation (Cretaceous) in the Araripe Basin, northeastern Brazil, and perform phylogenetic analysis to assess its higher-level relationships. The new specimen is an almost complete and articulated skeleton with soft tissue preservation.Phylogenetic analysis recovered the specimen nested in the clade Hyloidea and our results highlight the remarkable value of the Crato Formation as a Laggerstätte.

A new genus and species of frog from the Kem Kem (Morocco), the second neobatrachian from Cretaceous Africa

“…Neobatrachians are known in the fossil record during the Late Cretaceous from three main locations: Madagascar (Maastrichtian; Evans et al, 2014 ), Europe (Campanian; Venczel, Szentesi & Gardner, 2021 ), and South America (Maastrichtian; Báez & Gómez, 2018 ). The South American fossil record is of particular importance with numerous taxa known from articulated specimens ( Báez, Moura & Gómez, 2009 ; Báez & Gómez, 2018 ; Agnolin et al, 2020 ; Moura et al, 2021 ). In contrast, only fragmentary remains of two taxa have been recovered from Madagascar and Europe ( Evans, Jones & Krause, 2008 ; Evans et al, 2014 ; Venczel, Szentesi & Gardner, 2021 ).…”

“…The oldest occurrence of the Neobatrachia is from the Brazilian Crato Formation ( Leal & Brito, 2006 ; Báez, Moura & Gómez, 2009 ; Agnolin et al, 2020 ; Moura et al, 2021 ), which preserves extinct anurans from the Aptian (Early Cretaceous). However, Cretadhefdaa is still the oldest occurrence of Neobatrachia outside of South America.…”

Populating a Continent: Phylogenomics Reveal the Timing of Australian Frog Diversification

“…Due to our limited sampling of extant Calyptocephalellidae however, the addition of this taxon dramatically imbalances range reconstruction. To correct for this and account for the ancient known history of calyptocephalellids in South America (Moura et al 2021; we included two additional South American fossil taxa, one younger-Calyptocephalella canqueli In addition to the origins of Australian frogs we were interested in identifying how pelodryadids arrived in Australia. Specifically we aimed to test if they arrived via dispersal through Antarctica or overwater dispersal from South America.…”