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Anura
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Amphibia Order: Anura Rafinesque, 1815
Suborders
See text

Anura is an order of animals in the class Amphibia, that includes frogs and toads. There are around 5,280 species currently described in the order. The living Anurans are typically divided into three suborders: Archaeobatrachia, Mesobatrachia and Neobatrachia. This classification is based on such morphological features as the number of vertebrae, the structure of the pectoral girdle, and the morphology of tadpoles.

As suggested by their names, the Archaeobatrachians are the most primitive of frogs. These frogs have morphological characteristics which are found mostly in extinct frogs, and are absent in most of the modern frog species. Most of these characteristics are not common between all the families of Archaeobatrachians, or are not absent from all the modern species of frog. However all Archarobatrachians have free vertebrae, whereas all other species of frog have their ribs fused to their vertebrae.

The Neobatrachians comprise the most modern species of frog. Most of these frogs have morphological features which are more complex than those of the Mesobatrachians and Archaeobatrachians. The Neobatrachians all have a palatine bone, which is a bone which braces the upper jaw to the neurocranium. This is absent in all Archaeobatrachians and some Mesobatrachians. The third distal carpus is fused with the remaining carpal bones. The adductor longus muscle is present in the Neobatrachians, but absent in the Archaeobatrachians and some Mesobatrachians. It is believed to have differentiated from pectineus muscle, and this differentiation has not occurred in the primitve frogs.

The Mesobatrachians are considered the evolutionary link between the Archaeobatrachians and the Neobatrachians. The families within the Mesobatrachian suborder generally contain morphological features typical of both the other suborders. For example, the palatine bone is absent in all Archaeobatrachians, and present in all Neobatrachians. However, within the Mesobatrachians families, it can be dependent on the species as to whether the palatine bone is present.

Due to the many morphological features which separate the frogs, there are many different systems for the classification of the Anuran suborders. These different classification systems usually split the Mesobatrachian suborder.

Archaeobatrachia - 4 families, 6 genera, 27 species
Family	Genera	Common Names	Example Species	Example Photo
Ascaphidae Fejérváry, 1923	1	Tailed frogs	Tailed Frog (Ascaphus truei)
Bombinatoridae Gray, 1825	2	Fire-belly toads	European Fire-bellied Toad (Bombina bombina)
Discoglossidae Günther, 1858	2	Painted frogs or Disc-Tongued frogs	Iberian or Portuguese Painted Frog (Discoglossus galganoi)
Leiopelmatidae Mivart, 1869	1	New Zealand primitive frogs	Hochstetters frog (Leiopelma hochstetteri)
Mesobatrachia - 6 families, 21 genera, 168 species
Family	Genera	Common Names	Example Species	Example Photo
Megophryidae Bonaparte, 1850	11	Litter frogs or short-legged toads	Long-nosed Horned Frog (Megophrys nasuta)
Pelobatidae Bonaparte, 1850	1	European spadefoot toads	Common Spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus)
Pelodytidae Bonaparte, 1850	1	Parsley frogs	Common Parsley Frog (Pelodytes punctatus)
Pipidae Gray, 1825	5	Tongueless frogs or clawed frogs	African Dwarf Frog (Hymenochirus boettgeri)
Rhinophrynidae Günther, 1859	1	Mexican Burrowing Toad	Mexican Burrowing Toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis)
Scaphiopodidae Cope, 1865	2	American spadefoot toads	Western Spadefoot Toad (Spea hammondii)
Neobatrachia - 21 families, more than 5,000 species
Family	Genera	Common Names	Example Species	Example Photo
Allophrynidae Goin, Goin, and Zug, 1978	1	Tukeit Hill Frog	Tukeit Hill Frog (Allophryne ruthveni)	-
Amphignathodontidae Boulenger, 1882	2	Marsupial Frogs	Marsupial Frog (Gastrotheca spp.)	-
Arthroleptidae Mivart, 1869	8	Screeching frogs or squeakers	Tanzanian Screeching Frog (Arthroleptis tanneri)	-
Brachycephalidae Günther, 1858	1	Saddleback toads	Brazilian Gold Frog (Brachycephalus didactylus)	-
Bufonidae Gray, 1825	35	True toads	Common Toad (Bufo bufo)
Centrolenidae Taylor, 1951	3	Glass frogs	Bare-hearted Glass Frog (Hyalinobatrachium colymbiphyllum)
Dendrobatidae Cope, 1865	9	Poison dart frogs	Yellow-banded Poison Dart (Dendrobates leucomelas)
Heleophrynidae Noble, 1931	1	Ghost frogs	Natal Ghost Frog (Heleophryne natalensis)	-
Hemisotidae Cope, 1867	1	Shovelnose frogs	Mottled Shovelnose Frogs (Hemisus marmoratus)	-
Hylidae Rafinesque, 1815	42	Tree frogs	White's Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)
Hyperoliidae Laurent, 1943	20	Sedge frogs or bush frogs	Big-eyed Tree Frog (Leptopelis vermiculatus)
Leptodactylidae Werner, 1896	49	Southern frogs or tropical frogs	Cliff Chirping Frog (Eleutherodactylus marnockii)
Mantellidae Laurent, 1946	5	-	Golden Mantella (Mantella aurantiaca)
Microhylidae Günther, 1858	69	Narrow-mouthed frogs	Sheep Frog (Hypopachus variolosus)
Myobatrachidae Schlegel In Gray, 1850	20	Australian ground frogs	Great Barred Frog (Mixophyes fasciolatus)
Ranidae Rafinesque, 1814	52	True frogs	American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
Rhacophoridae Hoffman, 1932	9	Moss frogs	Malabar Flying Frog (Rhacophorus malabaricus)
Rhinodermatidae Bonaparte, 1850	1	Darwin's frogs	Darwin's Frog (Rhinoderma darwinii)
Sooglossidae Noble, 1931	2	Seychelles frogs	Gardiner's Seychelles Frog (Sooglossus gardineri)	-

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Anura

• Myers, P.; R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey (2006). Order Anura (frogs and toads). The Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved on 2006-05-13.

• Frost, Darrel (2004). Anura Merrem, 1820. Amphibian Species of the World 3.0, an Online Reference. The American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on 2006-05-13.

• Duellman, William E.; Linda Trueb (1994). Biology of Amphibians. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4780-X. 

• Cannatella, David; Ford, Linda & Bockstanz, Lori (1995). Neobatrachia. Tree of Life Web Project. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.