Document Type
Article
Author ORCID Identifier
Jackson Phillips https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9831-6609
Jens Reissig https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1514-8433
Gary Kyle Nicolau https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8867-3709
Journal/Book Title/Conference
African Journal of Herpetology
Volume
72
Issue
1
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Publication Date
4-25-2023
First Page
81
Last Page
90
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
Lungs are a prototypical trait of most tetrapods, but some amphibians have become secondarily lungless over evolutionary time. Anuran (frog) tadpoles offer an opportunity to examine lung loss from an evolutionary perspective, because there are many independent instances where lungs are not inflated until adulthood, and so are functionally lost. Lung loss is typically associated with living in fast-flowing streams, and so we examined larval lung development in the stream specialist family Heleophrynidae. We find that one genus, Hadromophryne Van Dijk, 2008, has large lungs as tadpole, while the other genus, Heleophryne Sclater, 1898, has much smaller, stunted lung buds. We further speculate how this information changes our understanding of how the specialised torrent form has evolved in this specialised group.
Recommended Citation
Jackson R Phillips, Jens Reissig & Gary Kyle Nicolau (2023) Notes on lung development in South African ghost frogs (Anura: Heleophrynidae), African Journal of Herpetology, 72:1, 81-90, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2023.2191602