Pelobates

The European spadefoot toads are a family of frogs, the Pelobatidae, with only one extant genus Pelobates, containing six species. They are native to Europe, the Mediterranean, northwestern Africa, and western Asia.

Pelobates

Franco Andreone - see authorization · CC BY-SA 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
spadefoot toadPBDB
Sits inside
PelobatidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 3 of 92 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 34 of 92 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 92 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 44 of 92 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.4–7.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 31 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

92 occurrences of Pelobates on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

92 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

12 formations

Upper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°ESajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°ELaa — 48.37°N, 16.35°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°ELefkon — 41.18°N, 23.42°ELefkon — 40.78°N, 24.03°EGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°EVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EEnspel — 50.61°N, 7.89°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°ESpilia — 41.15°N, 23.48°EColombacci — 44.22°N, 11.77°EPorsuk — 39.52°N, 31.65°E

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The named rock units Pelobates has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 72 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pelobates and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Pelobates and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,135 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 88 sites for Pelobates, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

43 references

Each of the 92 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 31 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Pelobates

Credit
Franco Andreone - see authorization
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pelobates fuscus · UF:Herp:36935

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPelobatidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wagler 1830