Leiopelma

Leiopelma is a genus of New Zealand primitive frogs, belonging to the suborder Archaeobatrachia. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Leiopelmatidae. The leiopelmatids' unique and ancestral features indicate they are part of an ancient lineage. While some taxonomists have suggested combining the North American frogs of the genus Ascaphus in the family Ascaphidae with the New Zealand frogs of the genus Leiopelma in the family Leiopelmatidae, the current consensus is that these two groups constitute two separate families. The three extant species of Leiopelmatidae are only found in New Zealand.

Leiopelma

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
LeiopelmatidaePBDB
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 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 18.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 5 of 7 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 7 occurrencesPleistocene19–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences640 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences15.9 Mya129 ka19.2 Mya0 Mya

7 occurrences of Leiopelma on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

7 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

1 formation

Bannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°EBannockburn — 44.88°S, 169.75°E

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The named rock units Leiopelma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Leiopelma and its relatives

Miocene

Where Leiopelma and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

62 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Leiopelma, 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

2 references

Each of the 7 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Leiopelma

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Leiopelma 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 itLeiopelmatidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fitzinger 1861