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New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles

Nature volume 425, pages 711–714 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

About 96% of the more than 4,800 living anuran species1 belong to the Neobatrachia or advanced frogs2,3,4. Because of the extremely poor representation of these animals in the Mesozoic fossil record, hypotheses on their early evolution have to rely largely on extant taxa5,6,7. Here we report the discovery of a burrowing frog from India that is noticeably distinct from known taxa in all anuran families. Phylogenetic analyses of 2.8 kilobases of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA unambiguously designate this frog as the sister taxon of Sooglossidae, a family exclusively occurring on two granitic islands of the Seychelles archipelago8. Furthermore, molecular clock analyses9 uncover the branch leading to both taxa as an ancient split in the crown-group Neobatrachia. Our discovery discloses a lineage that may have been more diverse on Indo-Madagascar in the Cretaceous period, but now only comprises four species on the Seychelles and a sole survivor in India. Because of its very distinct morphology and an inferred origin that is earlier than several neobatrachian families10, we recognize this frog as a new family.

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Figure 1: Holotype of Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis.
Figure 2: Bayesian consensus phylogram for the analysis of 2,325 bp of DNA.
Figure 3: Early evolution of advanced frogs.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Kerala Forest Department for collecting permits (to S.D.B.), and to J. Nagaraju (Molecular Genetics Laboratory, CDFD, Hyderabad) for support in sequencing Nasikabatrachus. P. Mardulyn, M. C. Milinkovitch and K. Roelants provided comments on an earlier draft. D. Cannatella, R. Brown, S. Donnellan, R. Drewes, J. Vindum, R. Nussbaum, M. Vences, E. Scott and D. Wake provided tissue samples. A. Mannaert assisted in the molecular work. D. Adriaens, S. Devaere, F. Verschoten and A. Herrel were supportive in osteological analyses. J. Thorne made his software available. M. Coates provided suggestions for calibration.

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Author notes

  1. S. D. Biju and Franky Bossuyt: The authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, 695562, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

    S. D. Biju

  2. Biology Department, Unit of Ecology & Systematics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium

    S. D. Biju & Franky Bossuyt

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Correspondence to Franky Bossuyt.

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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

41586_2003_BFnature02019_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Information: This file contains measurements on the holotype, notes on amplexus, discussion on convergence, list of species included in the phylogenetic analyses, uncorrected ("p") distance matrix for mt- and nuDNA, Bayesian analyses of individual genes, and divergence time estimates. (PDF 861 kb)

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Biju, S., Bossuyt, F. New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles. Nature 425, 711–714 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02019

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