Amphibians and Squamates From Maastrichtian Cretaceous Iberia

Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) amphibians and squamates from northeastern Iberia

Authors:

Blanco et al

Abstract:

Maastrichtian biodiversity of medium- and large-sized terrestrial vertebrates is well known in Europe and, specifically, in the Iberian Peninsula. Regarding small-sized herpetofaunas (lissamphibians and squamates), only a few European sites have yielded a significant amount of fossils, and they are still poorly known from the Iberian Peninsula. Recent fieldwork carried out at several sites exposing the Tremp Formation (Southern Pyrenees) has revealed four new localities yielding microvertebrates. Two of them (L'Espinau and Serrat del Rostiar-1) are relatively diverse in herpetofauna, containing albanerpetontids, four different anurans (two different alytids, a pelobatid or gobiatid and a palaeobatrachid), as well as six types of squamates (including scincomorphs, iguanids, anguids and probably gekkotans). Most of these groups are shared with other Campanian-Maastrichtian localities from eastern Iberia although, in some cases, morphological differences might suggest the presence of new lower-level taxa (i.e., genera or species). Also remarkable is the presence of alytines and likely gekkotans that would represent the oldest records of these taxa in Europe and in the Iberian Peninsula, respectively. Taxa of Laurasian origin are common at the Serrat del Rostiar-1 and L'Espinau localities, while Gondwanan taxa are lacking in all cases. Evidence for Asian immigrants (i.e., alytines) is found amongst anurans. Some differences regarding the faunal composition could be explained by environmental factors (i.e., coastal wetlands vs. fluvial settings), although the possibility of taphonomic biases cannot be ruled out.

Maastrichtian Cretaceous Daemon-Frog Beelzebufo: Now Smaller, Armoured

New Material of Beelzebufo, a Hyperossified Frog (Amphibia: Anura) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

Authors:

Evans et al

Abstract:

The extant anuran fauna of Madagascar is exceptionally rich and almost completely endemic. In recent years, many new species have been described and understanding of the history and relationships of this fauna has been greatly advanced by molecular studies, but very little is known of the fossil history of frogs on the island. Beelzebufo ampinga, the first named pre-Holocene frog from Madagascar, was described in 2008 on the basis of numerous disarticulated cranial and postcranial elements from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Maevarano Formation of Madagascar. These specimens documented the presence of a hyperossified taxon that differed strikingly from extant Malagasy frogs in its large size and heavy coarse cranial exostosis. Here we describe and analyse new, articulated, and more complete material of the skull, vertebral column, and hind limb, as well as additional isolated elements discovered since 2008. μCT scans allow a detailed understanding of both internal and external morphology and permit a more accurate reconstruction. The new material shows Beelzebufo to have been even more bizarre than originally interpreted, with large posterolateral skull flanges and sculptured vertebral spine tables. The apparent absence of a tympanic membrane, the strong cranial exostosis, and vertebral morphology suggest it may have burrowed during seasonally arid conditions, which have been interpreted for the Maevarano Formation from independent sedimentological and taphonomic evidence. New phylogenetic analyses, incorporating both morphological and molecular data, continue to place Beelzebufo with hyloid rather than ranoid frogs. Within Hyloidea, Beelzebufo still groups with the South American Ceratophryidae thus continuing to pose difficulties with both biogeographic interpretations and prior molecular divergence dates.

Hula Painted Frog is Not Extinct...and Not Related to What We Thought

The first amphibian to have been officially declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been rediscovered in the north of Israel after some 60 years and turns out to be a unique "living fossil," without close relatives among other living frogs.

The Hula painted frog was catalogued within the Discoglossus group when it was first discovered in the Hula Valley of Israel in the early 1940s. The frog was thought to have disappeared following the drying up of the Hula Lake at the end of the 1950s, and was declared extinct by the IUCN in 1996. As a result, the opportunity to discover more about this species' history, biology and ecology was thought to have disappeared.

However, a team of Israeli, German and French researchers now report in the scientific journal Nature Communications on an in-depth scientific analysis of this enigmatic amphibian.

Based on new genetic analyses of rediscovered individuals and the morphologic analyses of extant and fossil bones, the conclusion is that the Hula frog differs strongly from its other living relatives, the painted frogs from northern and western Africa. Instead, the Hula frog is related to a genus of fossil frogs, Latonia, which were found over much of Europe dating back to prehistoric periods and has been considered extinct for about a million years,

The results imply that the Hula painted frog is not merely another rare species of frog, but is actually the sole representative of an ancient clade of frogs (a group with a single common ancestor)