Hyloidea


Hyloidea is a superfamily of frogs. Hyloidea accounts for 54% of all living anuran species. The superfamily Hyloidea branched off from a common ancestor from the suborder Neobatrachia during the time of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction 66 million years ago. The fossil evidence found during this period of extinction could not determine the effects upon the frogs, due to the lack of fossils. Increased forestation erupted after this extinction, possibly leading to more arboreal adaptations of these anurans to be best suited for this habitat.
It contains the following subgroups:
Hyloidea is the largest superfamily of anurans due to scientists placing frogs into this family when the relationships to others are unknown. Therefore, Hyloidea has the highest species diversity. Hyloidea are all tailless, have shortened bodies, large mouths and muscular hind legs. Most anurans in the superfamily have a lateral‐bender which is a type of pelvis morphology found in walking, hopping and burrowing frogs. Some species that appear later in the taxon have a sagittal‐hinge pelvis found in aquatic frogs as well as walking, hopping and burrowing frogs and some have a fore–aft slider pelvis found in terrestrial frogs.

Phylogenic Relationships

The morphological characteristics between anurans are very similar, therefore DNA testing was used to further the understanding of the relationships within Hyloidea as technology progressed. After the ML and Bayesian analyses were conducted, using a nuclear marker toolkit, to review the relationships of the superfamily Hyloidea on a molecular level, the results were shocking as they found clear evidence that resolves some of the relations of the anurans in Hyloidea. As they tested 55 relationships of the Hyloidea and was found that 53 out of the 55 previously established nodes on the phylogenetic tree were supported by this DNA testing.