Indobatrachus
| Indobatrachus Temporal range: Early Paleocene,
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| Illustration of fossil specimens | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Suborder: | Neobatrachia |
| Genus: | †Indobatrachus Noble, 1930 |
| Species: | †I. pusillus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Indobatrachus pusillus (Owen, 1847)
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| Synonyms | |
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Indobatrachus (Greek for "Indian frog") is an extinct genus of frog known from the Early Paleocene (Danian) of India.[1][2] It contains a single species, Indobatrachus pusillus. Two other species, I. trivialis and I. malabaricus, were also previously described, but these have since been synonymized with I. pusillus.[3][4]
Indobatrachus was a very small frog, only 20 millimetres (0.79 in) long as an adult. It is known from numerous complete but poorly-preserved specimens (known by Richard Owen as "batracholites") from the Intertrappean Beds of Worli Hill, Mumbai. The stratigraphy of the specimens is disputed; they were originally dated to the Early Eocene, but later thought to be latest Cretaceous in age (66 mya).[5][6] However, more recently, the intertrappean rocks around Mumbai have been dated to the late Danian, around 62.5 million years ago, representing the youngest eruptive event in the western Deccan volcanic province.[2][7]
The taxonomy of this genus is debated; it was previously classified within the Australian frog superfamily Myobatrachoidea by many authors, including Owen, but such a relationship is now considered dubious or untenable, with only some vertebral similarities linking the two groups.[5][6][8] Alternatively, it may represent a member of the superfamily Sooglossoidea, another ancient group that is thought to have originated on Insular India during the Cretaceous.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ Owen (1847). "On the Batracholites, indicative of a small species of Frog (Rana pusilla, Ow.). Addendum to the Communication from G. T. Clark, Esq., Bombay". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 3 (1–2): 224–225. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1847.003.01-02.24. ISSN 0370-291X. S2CID 130170290.
- ^ a b Dhobale, Anup; Mohabey, Dhananjay M.; Samant, Bandana; Sangode, Satish J.; Kumar, Deepesh (2024). "Fossil Squamata and Anura from sediments associated with oldest lava piles of Deccan Trap Supergroup (Upper Cretaceous-lower Paleocene), India". Historical Biology. doi:10.1080/08912963.2024.2418914. ISSN 0891-2963.
- ^ "Fossilworks: Indobatrachus pusillus". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ Metcalf, M. M. (12 December 1930). "A Fossil Frog, Indobatrachus Noble, from the Eocene of Southwestern India". Science. 72 (1876): 602–603. Bibcode:1930Sci....72..602M. doi:10.1126/science.72.1876.602. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17756365.
- ^ a b Folie, Annelise (2012). "Early Eocene frogs from Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, India". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi:10.4202/app.2011.0063. ISSN 0567-7920. S2CID 55406707.
- ^ a b Špinar, Zdeněk V.; Hodrová, Marcela (1985). "New knowledge of the genus Indobatrachus (Anura) from the Lower Eocene of India". Amphibia-Reptilia. 6 (4): 363–376. doi:10.1163/156853885x00353. ISSN 0173-5373.
- ^ Kale, Vivek S.; Dole, Gauri; Shandilya, Priyanka; Pande, Kanchan (18 June 2019). "Stratigraphy and correlations in Deccan Volcanic Province, India: Quo vadis?". GSA Bulletin. 132 (3–4): 588–607. doi:10.1130/B35018.1. ISSN 0016-7606.
- ^ Tyler, Michael J. (1974). "First frog fossils from Australia". Nature. 248 (5450): 711–712. Bibcode:1974Natur.248..711T. doi:10.1038/248711b0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4206559.
- ^ Biju, S. D.; Bossuyt, Franky (2003). "New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles". Nature. 425 (6959): 711–714. doi:10.1038/nature02019. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 14562102. S2CID 4425593.