An Upper Eocene Frog from the Dominican Republic and its Implication for Caribbean Biogeography

An Upper Eocene Frog from the Dominican Republic and its Implication for Caribbean Biogeography

A frog of the leptodactylid genus Eleutherodactylus is reported from Eocene amber found in the Dominican Republic. It is the first described amphibian fossil in amber, and the oldest complete lissamphibian fossil from Mesoamerica (Central America and Mexico). Dating of the amber matrix indicates tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 237; no. 4819; pp. 1215 - 1216
Main Authors: Poinar, George O., Cannatella, David C.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 04-09-1987
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects:
Amber
Amphibians, Fossil
Biogeography
Biological taxonomies
Biota
Eleutherodactylus
Endemic species
Fauna
Fossils
Freshwater
Frogs
Genera
Mining
Resins, Fossil
Dominican Republic
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Summary:A frog of the leptodactylid genus Eleutherodactylus is reported from Eocene amber found in the Dominican Republic. It is the first described amphibian fossil in amber, and the oldest complete lissamphibian fossil from Mesoamerica (Central America and Mexico). Dating of the amber matrix indicates that by the end of the Eocene a diverse fauna was present in the Antilles, much earlier than has generally been proposed. The presence of this and other amber fossils from this same age suggests that Tertiary patterns of landmass movements were significant in determining the present distribution of species.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.237.4819.1215