Abstract
The nearly 200 species of direct-developing frogs in the genus Eleutherodactylus (the Caribbean landfrogs, which include the coquís) comprise an important lineage for understanding the evolution and historical biogeography of the Caribbean. Time-calibrated molecular phylogenies provide indirect evidence for the processes that shaped the modern anuran fauna, but there is little direct evidence from the fossil record of Caribbean frogs about their distributions in the past. We report a distal humerus of a frog from the Oligocene (approx. 29 Ma) of Puerto Rico that represents the earliest known fossil frog from any Caribbean island. Based on its prominent rounded distal humeral head, distally projecting entepicondyle, and reduced ectepicondyle, we refer it to the genus Eleutherodactylus. This fossil provides additional support for an early arrival of some groups of terrestrial vertebrates to the Greater Antilles and corroborates previous estimates based on molecular phylogenies suggesting that this diverse Caribbean lineage was present in the islands by the mid-Cenozoic.
Highlights
This fossil provides additional support for an early arrival of some groups of terrestrial vertebrates to the Greater Antilles and corroborates previous estimates based on molecular phylogenies suggesting that this diverse Caribbean lineage was present in the islands by the mid-Cenozoic
Biogeographers have long been interested in how the geological history of the Caribbean has shaped the biota of its islands
Studies combining modern and palaeontological distributions of taxa with an understanding of the complex geological history of the Caribbean have shaped hypotheses explaining the origin of taxa found in the Greater and Lesser Antilles [1,2]
Summary
Biogeographers have long been interested in how the geological history of the Caribbean has shaped the biota of its islands. 36 mm snout–urostyle length) that falls in the lower half of the size range of extant species of Eleutherodactylus (11–88 mm snout– vent length) [16] Evidence for complete submergence of this bank since the Oligocene is lacking, and it has most likely been subaerially exposed since at least the late Eocene–early Oligocene [39] This supports an older colonization than suggested by the most recent time-calibrated molecular phylogenetic study [20], but corroborates similar past studies suggesting that Eleutherodactylus was established in the Greater Antilles during the Eocene or early Oligocene, with the major royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbl Biol. Ali and an anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful comments and recommendations
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