Ranidae

Ranidae
Cyprus water frog (Pelophylax cypriensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Suborder:	Neobatrachia
Clade:	Ranoidea
Family:	Ranidae Rafinesque, 1814
Synonyms
See text

The Ranidae or true frogs can be found in most countries except Antarctica. The true frogs can be found in North America, northern South America, Europe, Asia, Madagascar, Africa, East Indies, New Guinea, and Australia. The bullfrog is the largest true frog in North America. Usually, true frogs are smooth, moist-skinned frogs, with large, powerful legs and have webbed feet. The smallest true frogs are the Wood frog (Rana sylvatica). The largest is the Goliath frog (Conraua goliath). True frogs are semi-aquatic frogs. They live near water.

Systematics

The Ranidae are not fully organized. There are some arguments about organization. Most organizations are agreed with.Some subfamilies are now seen as families (Petropedetidae, Cacosterninae, Mantellidae, and Dicroglossidae). The genus Rana is now split up.

This phylogeny was made by Che et al., 2007 using mitochondrial genes.

Genera

Most of the subfamilies in Ranidae are separate families. Raninae is the only subfamily. These genera are part of the family Ranidae:

• Abavorana Oliver, Prendini, Kraus, and Raxworthy, 2015 (three species)
• Amnirana Dubois, 1992 (11 species)
• Amolops Cope, 1865 (80 species)
• Babina Thompson, 1912 (two species)
• Chalcorana Dubois, 1992 (nine species)
• Clinotarsus Mivart 1869 (three species)
• Glandirana Fei, Ye, and Huang, 1990 (six species)
• Huia Yang, 1991 (monotypic)
• Humerana Dubois, 1992 (four species)
• Hydrophylax Fitzinger, 1843 (four species)
• Hylarana Tschudi 1838 (four species)
• Indosylvirana Oliver, Prendini, Kraus, and Raxworthy, 2015 (13 species)
• Lithobates Fitzinger, 1843 (55 species)
• Meristogenys Yang, 1991 (13 species)
• Nidirana Dubois, 1992 (19 species)
• Odorrana Fei, Ye, and Huang, 1990 (64 species)
• Papurana Dubois, 1992 (19 species)
• Pelophylax Fitzinger 1843 (19 species)
• Pseudorana Fei, Ye, and Huang, 1990 (monotypic)
• Pterorana Kiyasetuo and Khare, 1986 (monotypic)
• Pulchrana Dubois, 1992 (18 species)
• Rana Linnaeus, 1758 (58 species)
• Sanguirana Dubois, 1992 (six species)
• Staurois Cope, 1865 (six species)
• Sumaterana Arifin, Smart, Hertwig, Smith, Iskandar, and Haas, 2018 (three species)
• Sylvirana Dubois, 1992 (12 species)
• Wijayarana Arifin, Chan, Smart, Hertwig, Smith, Iskandar, and Haas, 2021 (five species)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ranidae.

• Cogger, H.G.; Zweifel, R.G.; Kirschner, D. (2004): Encyclopedia of Reptiles & Amphibians (2nd ed.). Fog City Press. ISBN 1-877019-69-0
• 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.
• Hillis, D.M. (2007) Constraints in naming parts of the Tree of Life. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 42 (2): 331–338. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.08.001 PDF fulltext Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
• Hillis, D.M.; Wilcox, T.P. (2005): Phylogeny of the New World true frogs (Rana). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 34 (2): 299–314. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.10.007 PDF fulltext Archived 2008-05-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Pauly, Greg B.; Hillis, David M.; Cannatella, David C. (2009): Taxonomic freedom and the role of official lists of species names. Herpetologica 65: 115–128.
• Rafinesque, C.S. (2007): "Fine del prodromo d'erpetologia siciliana ". Specchio delle Scienze, o, Giornale Enciclopedico di Sicilia 2: 102–104. (Ranidae, new family). (in Italian).