Karyology of the main groups of African frogs

Abstract

The karyological data obtained to date on African anurans offer some indication of their possible phyletic relationships. The basal chromosome number of pipids resembles that typical of neobatrachians, thus distinguishing them from the discoglossid-leiopelmatid stock with which they are usually associated by taxonomists. The microhylid karyotype is similar to that of other neobatrachian families, in contrast to some current hypotheses on their primitiveness and separate evolution. The various ranoid subfamilies show parallel lines of karyological evolution which tend to reduce the diploid number and form acrocentrics during intermediate stages of the process. Sooglossids show this «intermediate » karyotype with acrocentrics, and karyologically are very close to Malagasian ranids (mantellines) to which they may be phyletically related. © 1981 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.