Eodiscoglossus

Eodiscoglossus is an extinct genus of prehistoric frogs. It is known from the type species E. santonjae from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation and El Castellar Formation of Spain, as well as a referred species E. oxoniensis known from the Forest Marble Formation of the UK and an indeterminate species from the Dzunbain Formation of Mongolia. It was a small primitive frog, with a length of only 27 mm (1.1 in) from the premaxilla to the ischium. Formerly considered to be closely related to discoglossids, E. santonjae is now regarded as close to the root of the crown group of modern frogs in a position more derived than New Zealand frogs and tailed frogs, but more basal than costatans like alytids and other more advanced frogs like neobatrachians. The morphology of E. santonjae suggests a generalist and unspecialised movement habit. The referral of E. oxoniensis to Eodiscoglossus has been questioned, as it is much earlier than the type species and it is based on homoplasic and plesiomorphic characteristics inherited from a common ancestor, so there is no clear evidence of a close relation.

Eodiscoglossus

Báez, Ana Maria & Gómez, Raúl O. · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DiscoglossidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 155 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 8 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 8 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 8 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 8 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 8 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 8 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 8 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences240–234 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences234–229 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences229–223 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences169–163 Mya — about 2 occurrences128–122 Mya — about 2 occurrences122–116 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences116–110 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–63 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences227.3 Mya72.2 Mya240 Mya63 Mya

8 occurrences of Eodiscoglossus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

8 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

6 formations

Pui Beds — 45.49°N, 23.09°EEl Castellar — 40.67°N, 0.67°WForest Marble — 51.87°N, 1.27°WItat — 55.65°N, 89.18°EDzunbain — 42.45°N, 102.42°ETiki — 23.90°N, 81.35°E

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The named rock units Eodiscoglossus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Eodiscoglossus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Eodiscoglossus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

176 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Eodiscoglossus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

7 references

Each of the 8 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Eodiscoglossus

Credit
Báez, Ana Maria & Gómez, Raúl O.
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Eodiscoglossus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDiscoglossidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Villalta 1957