Classification of Amphibia

About 2,500 extant species of three divergent groups—frogs and toads, salamanders, and caecilians
are included in Amphibia.

1. The skin is moist, glandular and without scales.

2. A distinct neck is absent.

3. Typically, two pairs of limbs, no paired fins. Forelimbs with four and hind limbs with five
clawless digits.

4. Two nostrils connected with the mouth cavity.

5. Skull with two occipital condyles.

6. Heart 3-chambered; two atria (auricles) and one ventricle; two other chambers— sinus venosus
and conus arteriosus, present.

7. Respiration by gills, lungs, skin or lining of buccal cavity.

8. Tympanum present; a rod-like collumela connects the tympanum and inner ear.

9. Eggs with gelatinous coverings, usually laid in water. Larvae usually aquatic.

The class Amphibia is divided into two subclass

1. Apsidospondyli and

2. Lepospondyli.

(1) Subclass Apsidospondyli:

The central of vertebrae formed from cartilage blocks in units of two, which are ossified in varying
degrees as anterior intercentra and posterior pleurocentra.

Apsidospondyli are placed into two superorders—Labyrinthodontia and Salientia:

(A) Superorder Labyrinthodontia (Stegocephalia):

1. The cross section of the teeth exhibits a prominent radiating in-folding of the enamel surface,
hence the name.

2. Tail present; legs all of about same size.

3. Cranium and cheeks completely roofed with bony plates.

4. Often armoured ventrally with overlapping scales.

Order 1. Ichthyostegalia:

The’ earliest known amphibians, perhaps the nearest to true prototetrapods, were prevalent from
upper Devonian to upper Carboniferous.

2. The skull is about 20 cm long with three interesting features.

i. A preopercular and possibly subopercular persisted on the back of squamosal and quadratojugal
bones.

ii. The septomaxilla formed part of the dermal covering of the skull.

iii. Like Dipnoi and some early crossopterygians, the nose bears a pit on the under-side of the skull,
bridged by a process of the maxilla and divided into anterior and posterior part.

Examples: Ichthystega, Ichthystegopsis, etc.

Order 2. Rhachitomi:

Typical labyrinthodonts flourished during the Permian and Triassic, became subsequently extinct.

1. About 150 cm long with short powerful legs and five toes.

2. Large depressed skull with large inter-pterygoid cavities and otic notch.

3. The rhachitomous vertebrae had a semilunar wedge-like inter-centrum and one or two posterior
pleurocentra in addition to a vertical neural arch.

Example: Eryops .

Order 3. Stereospondyli:

Transitional types arose from rhachitome stock, lived in the early Triassic waters, became extinct
towards the end of Triassic.

1. Heavy-headed, shallow-water, bottom- dwellers of large size.

2. Vertebrae with pleurocentra removed, the intercentra joining almost the whole structure.

3. Skull flattened, ossification much reduced, except in the exoccipitals, which formed a double
condyle.

4. Para sphenoid highly developed and apparently had firm union with pterygoids.

5. Eyes dorsally placed.

6. Massive supporting pectoral plate formed from Clavicles and interclavicles. Examples:
Capitosaurus, Cyclotosaurus, Paracyclotosaurus, Brachyops, etc.

Order 4. Embolomeri:

Fish-like labyrinthodonts appeared in the Carboniferous, became abundant during the Pennian and
extinct at the end of Triassic. Some were superficially crocodile-like.

1. The teeth had the dentine in-folded at the base into labyrinthine grooves.

2. The vertebrae were embolomerous, consisting of a neural arch resting on two notochordal centra
—an anterior inter-centrum and a posterior pleurocentrum.

3. The shoulder girdle with increased size.

4. The pelvic girdle not directly attached to the vertebral column but held in place by ligament.

Examples: Eogyrinus, Palaeogyrinus, etc.

Order 5. Seymouriamorpha:

The group represents a stem apparently developed astride the transition line between Amphibia and
Reptilia at the lower Permian.

1. Head relatively small, pointed; dorsal nostrils; a comparatively thick body and a short tail.

2. All its limbs were pentadactyl, short, muscular and thrust from the midline.

3. The atlas and axis were formed from anterior cervicals.

4. Interclavicle long and a ventral coracoid ossification in the shoulder girdle.

5. The pelvic girdle was anchored by means of two sacral vertebrae.

6. The ilium was dorsally expanded for attachment of strong walking muscles.

7. The shoulder girdle lay beneath the jaw.

8. The ribs were larger and double-headed.

Example: Seymouria

(B) Superorder Salientia (Anura, Batrachia):

1. Tailless frogs and toads with short and broad bodies and long hindlimbs.

2. The earliest fossil records are found as early as Jurassic period.

The Salientia is divided into three orders- Eoanura, Proanura and Anura.

Order 1. Eoanura:

1. These are “dawn frogs”—ancestral to the modern frogs and were prominent in upper
Carboniferous.

2. Cranial, vertebral and other features are labyrinthodoritine.

Examples: Amphibamus, Miobatrachus, etc.

Order 2. Proanura:

They were ancestral form of Anura in the Triassic period in Madagascar.

1. The trunk was longer than that of the modern frog.

2. The skull unlike that of modern frog.

3. The postcranial skeleton, including caudal vertebrae, was not otherwise anuran; the ilia were
elongated

Example: Protobatrachus.

Order 3. Anura (Salientia):

Tailless modern toads and frogs with more than 2,200 extant species arranged in ten families;

1. Skull thin without solid roof; bones few.

2. Vertebrae few, and last is a slender urostyle.

3. Ribs reduced or none.

4. Egg deposition and fertilization usually external.

Examples: Bufo, Rana, Rhacophorus, Xenopus, Ascaphus, Hyla, etc.

(2) Subclass Lepospondyli:

1. These are small late Palaeozoic amphibians, ranging from a few inches to a few feet in size.

2. The- vertebrae lepospondylous, i.e., centra formed directly of bone around notochord, not
preceded by cartilage.

3. A few of these animals are superficially snake-like.

Order 1. Aistopoda:

Small sized, body snake-like with as many as 100 vertebrae and with forked ribs, found in
Carboniferous deposits.

Example: Ophiderpeton.

Order 2. Nectridia:

1. One type was superficially snake-like, limbless and another type with small limbs – and a
flattened skull, occurred in the Upper Carboniferous.

2. The skull bore an extraordinary armament formed by the outgrowth of the tabulars.

3. Cranium was largely unossified.

Examples: Sauropleura, Diplocaulus, etc.

Order 3. Microsauria (Adelospondyli):

1. Permian urodeles but retained too many labyrinthodont features to be closely related to caudata.

2. The neural arches were loosely attached to centrum.

3. Skull incompletely roofed; circumorbital bones lost, which left the orbit open below.

4. Gill breathing in adult continued.

Example: Lysorophus.

Order 4. Phyllospondyli:

1. The broad, heavily roofed skull with a highly diagrammatic arrangement of the investing bones.

2. Two occipital condyles were present in the skull.

3. The notochord and nerve cord remained in the same cavity.

Example: Brafichiosaurus.

Order 5. Urodela (Caudata):

1. Newts and salamanders; degenerate animals with a determinable ancestry from the Cretaceous
period. More than 250 species are existing today.

2. The head, trunk and tail usually distinct.

3. Limbs are about equal-sized.

4. Limb girdles largely cartilaginous.

5. No dermal shoulder girdle.

6. Larvae resemble adults in form and have teeth in both jaws.

Modern urodels are placed in eight families.

Examples: Cryptobranchus, Necturus, Atnphiuma, Siren, Typhlomolge, Ambystoma, Trilototriton,

Salamandra, etc.

Order 6. Apoda (Gymnophiona, Caecilia):

1. Aberrant, blind, worm-like, limbless, tropical amphibians with a very short tail and intromittant
organ in the male.

2. About 55 species are existing today and without fossil record.

3. The body is usually grooved transversely, and in the grooves are often series of minute scales, a
legacy from carboniferous ancestors.

4. The eyes are lidless and sometimes covered by cranial bones.

5. A protrusible sensory tentacle between nostril and orbit present.

6. The vent is almost terminal.

7. The skull compact, roofed with bones.

8. The vertebrae amphicoelous and many.

9. The limb girdles absent.

10. The eggs large and yolky, laid on land.

11. Cleavage meroblastic.

Examples: Typhlonectes, Rhinotrema, Coecilia, Ichthyophis, Caymnopis, Ureotyphlus, etc.

Originand evolution of amphibian

The first major groups of amphibians developed in the Devonian period, around 370 million
years ago, from lobe-finned fish which were similar to the modern coelacanth and lungfish.
These ancient lobe-finned fish had evolved multi-jointed leg-like fins with digits that enabled
them to crawl along the sea bottom. Some fish had developed primitive lungs that help them
breathe air when the stagnant pools of the Devonian swamps were low in oxygen. They could
also use their strong fins to hoist themselves out of the water and onto dry land if circumstances
so required. Eventually, their bony fins would evolve into limbs and they would become the
ancestors to all tetrapods, including modern amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Despite
being able to crawl on land, many of these prehistoric tetrapodomorph fish still spent most of
their time in the water. They had started to develop lungs, but still breathed predominantly with
gills.
Examples
Many examples of species showing transitional features have been discovered. Ichthyostega was
one of the first primitive amphibians, with nostrils and more efficient lungs. It had four sturdy
limbs, a neck, a tail with fins and a skull very similar to that of the lobe-finned
fish, Eusthenopteron. Amphibians evolved adaptations that allowed them to stay out of the water
for longer periods. Their lungs improved and their skeletons became heavier and stronger, better
able to support the weight of their bodies on land. They developed "hands" and "feet" with five
or more digits the skin became more capable of retaining body fluids and resisting
desiccation. The fish's hyomandibula bone in the hyoid region behind the gills diminished in size
and became the stapes of the amphibian ear, an adaptation necessary for hearing on dry land. An
affinity between the amphibians and the teleost fish is the multi-folded structure of the teeth and
the paired supra-occipital bones at the back of the head, neither of these features being found
elsewhere in the animal kingdom

The Permian lepospondyl Diplocaulus was largely aquatic

At the end of the Devonian period (360 million years ago), the seas, rivers and lakes were
teeming with life while the land was the realm of early plants and devoid of vertebrates,
[24]
though some, such as Ichthyostega, may have sometimes hauled themselves out of the water.
It is thought they may have propelled themselves with their forelimbs, dragging their
hindquarters in a similar manner to that used by the elephant seal In t.he
early Carboniferous (360 to 323 million years ago), the climate was relatively wet and warm.
Extensive swamps developed with mosses, ferns, horsetails and calamites. Air-
breathing arthropods evolved and invaded the land where they provided food for
the carnivorous amphibians that began to adapt to the terrestrial environment. There were no
other tetrapods on the land and the amphibians were at the top of the food chain, with some
occupying ecological positions currently held by crocodiles. Though equipped with limbs and
the ability to breathe air, most still had a long tapering body and strong tail. Others were the top
land predators, sometimes reaching several metres in length, preying on the large insects of the
period and the many types of fish in the water. They still needed to return to water to lay their
shell-less eggs, and even most modern amphibians have a fully aquatic larval stage with gills like
their fish ancestors. It was the development of the amniotic egg, which prevents the developing
embryo from drying out, that enabled the reptiles to reproduce on land and which led to
their dominance in the period that followed]
After the Carboniferous rainforest collapse amphibian dominance gave way to reptiles
and amphibians were further devastated by the Permian–Triassic extinction event.[26] During
the Triassic Period (252 to 201 million years ago), the reptiles continued to out-compete the
amphibians, leading to a reduction in both the amphibians' size and their importance in
the biosphere. According to the fossil record, Lissamphibia, which includes all modern
amphibians and is the only surviving lineage, may have branched off from the extinct
groups Temnospondyli and Lepospondyli at some period between the Late Carboniferous and
the Early Triassic. The relative scarcity of fossil evidence precludes precise dating, but the most
recent molecular study, based on multilocus sequence typing, suggests a Late
Carboniferous/Early Permian origin for extant amphibians

The temnospondyl Eryops had sturdy limbs to support its body

on land
The origins and evolutionary relationships between the three main groups of amphibians is a
matter of debate. A 2005 molecular phylogeny, based on rDNA analysis, suggests that
salamanders and caecilians are more closely related to each other than they are to frogs. It also
appears that the divergence of the three groups took place in the Paleozoic or
early Mesozoic (around 250 million years ago), before the breakup of the
supercontinent Pangaea and soon after their divergence from the lobe-finned fish. The briefness
of this period, and the swiftness with which radiation took place, would help account for the
relative scarcity of primitive amphibian fossils. There are large gaps in the fossil record, the
discovery of the dissorophoid temnospondyl Gerobatrachus from the Early Permian in Texas in
2008 provided a missing link with many of the characteristics of modern frogs . Molecular
analysis suggests that the frog–salamander divergence took place considerably earlier than
the palaeontological evidence indicates. One study suggested suggested that the last common
ancestor of all modern amphibians lived about 315 million years ago, and
that stereospondyl temnospondyls are the closest relatives to the caecilians ]However, most
studies support a single monophyletic origin of all modern amphibians within the dissorophoid
temnospondyls.
As they evolved from lunged fish, amphibians had to make certain adaptations for living on land,
including the need to develop new means of locomotion. In the water, the sideways thrusts of
their tails had propelled them forward, but on land, quite different mechanisms were required.
Their vertebral columns, limbs, limb girdles and musculature needed to be strong enough to raise
them off the ground for locomotion and feeding. Terrestrial adults discarded their lateral
line systems and adapted their sensory systems to receive stimuli via the medium of the air. They
needed to develop new methods to regulate their body heat to cope with fluctuations in ambient
temperature. They developed behaviours suitable for reproduction in a terrestrial environment.
Their skins were exposed to harmful ultraviolet rays that had previously been absorbed by the
water. The skin changed to become more protective and prevent excessive water loss.