| dc.description.abstract | The Ranidae is one of the largest families of the Neobatrachia, but its taxonomy is in a state of flux. Major taxonomic rearrangements have recently been instituted for this family, but these have been mostly phenetic in nature and no comprehensive attempt has been made to reconstruct its phylogeny. Within both the older and the contemporary classification systems of the Ranidae, the subfamily Petropedetinae has always been recognized. This small subfamily is endemic to Africa and comprises thirteen genera, eight of which are monotypic. The current distribution of most genera appears to be relictual, and is concentrated primarily along the Afromontane Forest regions, with a Centre of generic endemism in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Despite the lack of known synapomorphies for the Petropedetinae, the group was recently raised to familial level by Dubois (1992), and is taxonomic status is in need of re-appraisal. The major aim of the present study was to test the monophyly of the Petropedetinae. The generation of a phylogenetic hypothesis was also required to test the validity of the monotypic genera in this putative lineage, and to facilitate future evolutionary analyses of some of the more interesting behaviors and ecologies of species within this group, such as male-male combat, terrestrial breeding and various parental care strategies. Since affinities of the Petropedetinae are poorly understood, testing the monophyly required the inclusion of exemplars of most other major ranoid clades, particularly of those taxa that have previously been hypothesized to be related to any of the petropedetine genera. With the inclusion of exemplars of only a few additional groups, this was expanded to be a minimal exemplar analysis of the major clades of the Ranoidea, although that is not the primary focus of this work. | en_US |
