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The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) [41] but this is a great deal smaller than the largest amphibian that ever existed—the extinct 9 m (30 ft) Prionosuchus, a crocodile-like temnospondyl dating to 270 million years ago from the middle Permian of Brazil. [42]
Other vertebrae, which have characteristic features unique to modern species, were later found in Paleocene and Late Cretaceous sediments. [5] Phylogenetic evidence suggests that the ancestors of caecilians and batrachians (including frogs and salamanders) diverged from one another during the Carboniferous. This leaves a gap of more than 70 ...
The distinguishing feature of this species, at least among the Raorchestes from the Western Ghats, is its yellow dorsal surface of the forearm and the loreal region. Raorchestes glandulosus are small frogs. Males are 22–27 mm (0.87–1.06 in) in snout-vent length. Among the generally small Raorchestes, this makes them medium-sized.
The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) South China giant salamander (Andrias sligoi), but this is dwarfed by prehistoric temnospondyls such as Mastodonsaurus which could reach up to 6 m (20 ft) in length. The study of amphibians is called batrachology, while the study of both reptiles and amphibians is called herpetology.
Like other amphibians, oxygen can pass through their highly permeable skins. This unique feature allows them to remain in places without access to the air, respiring through their skins. Ribs are generally absent, so the lungs are filled by buccal pumping and a frog deprived of its lungs can maintain its body functions without them. [69]
The list below largely follows Darrel Frost's Amphibian Species of the World (ASW), Version 5.5 (31 January 2011). Another classification, which largely follows Frost, but deviates from it in part is the one of AmphibiaWeb , which is run by the California Academy of Sciences and several of universities.
Most species described as microsaurs, formerly grouped in the extinct and prehistoric amphibian group lepospondyls, has been placed in the newer clade Recumbirostra, and shares many anatomical features with amniotes which indicates they were amniotes themselves. [34]
However, the skeletal characteristics also appear in several types of Palaeozoic amphibians: [6] Double or paired occipital condyles; Two types of skin glands (mucous and granular) Fat bodies associated with gonads; Double-channeled sensory papillae in the inner ear; Green rods (a special type of visual cell, unknown in caecilians) Ribs do not ...