Why extant, why not extinct? A new extinct Latonia species (Anura: Discoglossidae) from the Early Pleistocene of the Apennine Peninsula provides clues on the survival of the genus in Eurasia

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985831%3A_____%2F25%3A00640146" target="_blank" >RIV/67985831:_____/25:00640146 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2025.2554727" target="_blank" >https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2025.2554727</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2025.2554727" target="_blank" >10.1080/14772019.2025.2554727</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Why extant, why not extinct? A new extinct Latonia species (Anura: Discoglossidae) from the Early Pleistocene of the Apennine Peninsula provides clues on the survival of the genus in Eurasia

Original language description

Pietrafitta is one of the richest Early Pleistocene localities in the Italian Peninsula and it hosts one of the latest occurrences of the discoglossid frog Latonia in Europe. This occurrence is here described as a new species of Latonia, a large-bodied frog, potentially feeding on hard invertebrates in the Pietrafitta palaeoswamp. Our first attempt at the phylogenetic reconstruction of Latonia, based on a matrix consisting of 20 taxa and 39 characters, placed the new Italian species within a poorly understood clade that also includes Latonia caucasica from the Late Miocene of northern Caucasus. Almost all other extinct Latonia species make up a second clade, represented in the fossil record from the Oligocene and including the youngest occurrence of the genus in Europe, from the Middle Pleistocene of Hungary. The only extant species, Latonia nigriventer, was the earliest branching taxon in our topology, which could be due to its unique unsculptured morphology, a trait that may represent a secondary loss during the Quaternary. The exostosis on cranial bones, which is considered a diagnostic feature of the genus, might have developed in the earliest Latonia in response to pronounced warming and drought. Later, starting after the Middle Miocene, this exostosis underwent a reduction process, possibly triggered by cooling, that led to Plio– Pleistocene forms sharing a narrower frontoparietal with a less pustular sculpturing. Latonia dimenticata is a clear example of this frontoparietal morphology. Latonia nigriventer may have further evolved a completely unsculptured morphology to face rapid environmental changes in the last Quaternary glacial phases and ultimately facilitating its survival into the present day.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10506 - Paleontology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Systematic Palaeontology

ISSN

1477-2019

e-ISSN

1478-0941

Volume of the periodical

23

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

40

Pages from-to

2554727

UT code for WoS article

001590785800001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105018770956