Pelobatidae

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.

Pelobatidae

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
PelobatoideaPBDB
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 143 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 230 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 230 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 16 of 230 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 230 occurrencesEocene — about 31 of 230 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 15 of 230 occurrencesMiocene — about 67 of 230 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 17 of 230 occurrencesPleistocene — about 82 of 230 occurrences158–153 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences153–147 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences105–100 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences100–95 Mya — about 2 occurrences95–89 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences89–84 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 2 occurrences79–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–68 Mya — about 6 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences58–53 Mya — about 3 occurrences53–47 Mya — about 4 occurrences47–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–37 Mya — about 10 occurrences37–32 Mya — about 14 occurrences32–26 Mya — about 7 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 6 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 9 occurrences16–11 Mya — about 32 occurrences11–5.3 Mya — about 26 occurrences5.3–0 Mya — about 100 occurrences143.1 Mya11.7 ka158 Mya0 Mya

230 occurrences of Pelobatidae 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

230 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

58 formations

Alamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°ELance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°ERexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WSajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°EFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°EChadron — 43.75°N, 102.67°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WOgallala — 38.90°N, 101.70°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.48°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.98°EWicomico — 29.42°N, 82.22°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WHsanda Gol — 45.25°N, 101.62°EHsanda Gol — 45.29°N, 101.63°EMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WLaa — 48.37°N, 16.35°ECambay Shale — 21.35°N, 73.07°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EBorgloon — 50.87°N, 4.98°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°ELefkon — 41.18°N, 23.42°ELefkon — 40.78°N, 24.03°EMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°W

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The named rock units Pelobatidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 34 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 121 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pelobatidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Pelobatidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,376 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 197 sites for Pelobatidae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

129 references

Each of the 230 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. 117 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 content1

Picture of Pelobatidae

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

No 3D scan of Pelobatidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itPelobatoidea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lataste 1879