"The coelacanth of frogs"

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

See tomorrow's nature for *Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis*:

S. D. Biju & Franky [sic] Bossuyt: New frog family from India reveals an
ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles, Nature 425, 711 -- 714 (16
October 2003)

Is burrowing and has many adaptations to this, including "a well developed
and highly calcified prehallux".

A large, fully resolved molecular tree of frogs is presented. Together with
the new species, Sooglossidae is at the base of Neobatrachia.

The Eocene *Indobatrachus* could be related to *Nasikabatrachus*.

I don't trust the divergence estimates much, because the calibrations are
very far away: "(1) the divergence of amniotes from amphibians at a minimum
of 338 Myr ago; (2) the divergence of diapsids from synapsids at about 310
Myr ago; and (3) the minimum age of Cryptobranchoidea (164 Myr ago; here
represented by the *Hynobius*-*Salamandra* split)".