MEXICAN TAILLESS AMPHIBIANS 27 



Family BUFONIDAE Hogg 



184L Bufonidae Hogg, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. 7, no. 45, p. 36L 



The family Bufonidae is here retained for the genus Bwfo, which 

 comprises numerous species in the Old and New Worlds. The major- 

 ity of the species are readily recognized, and a few of them have an 

 extensive range in their respective regions. Adults of the genus Bujo 

 lack maxillary teeth. There is some evidence, however, that Bujo is 

 a derivative of a toothed ancestor. The presence of a tooth ridge 

 and a tooth furrow in the upper jaw of a Bv^o tadpole is regarded by 

 Oeder ^ as conclusive evidence that the ancestors of this genus had 

 teeth. Doctor Noble ^ has examined the morphological details of the 

 several families of living Salientia and 

 has concluded that the bufonids are 

 inseparable from the leptodactylids. 



The accumulating evidence seems 

 to indicate that a satisfactory scheme 

 of classification can not be based 

 solely on dentition characters. Cope 

 attempted to outline a natural classi- 

 fication based largely on the pectoral ^ „ ^. . , , . , 



° "^ '^ FiGUEE 3. — Diagrammatic ventral view of 



girdle, Nicholls employed characters shoulder glrdle of Bufo amerkanus; arciferal 



furnished by the vertebral column, 'I ''™''"';, '^^' T°T ^^^"''' '^ S' 



•^ ' shoulder girdle, or pectoral arch, are capable 



while more recently Noble has of movement with contraction and expan- 



stressed the importance of the thigh «'°° ^^ '^^ *^°'-'^^; '^^ epicoracoid cartaages 



^ overlap 



musculature. As might be expected ^l., clavicle; Co.. cora<;oid; Ep., epicora- 



there are exceptions to all these cold; Mes., sternum or mesostemum; Sc, 



1 PI -r* i- rni- j. ii. scapula; X., xiphisternum 



schemes 01 classification, i he tooth- 

 less toads of the genus Bufo have long been recognized as a natural 

 group, and while the known morphological evidence may not warrant 

 the retention of the family Bufonidae solely for this genus, some 

 allowance must be made for the fact that relatively few species have 

 been critically studied by those interested in classification schemes. 



Genus BUFO Laurent! 



1768. Bufo Latjrenti, Synopsin reptilium, p. 25. [Genotj'pe, Bufo vulgaris 

 Laurenti, idem, p. 28 = [Rana] bufo Linnaeus, 1758, Systema naturae, 

 ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 210 (Europe).] 



1824. Oxyrhynchus Spix, Animalia nova, sive species novae testudinum et ranar- 

 um quas in itinere per Brasiliam, etc., p. 49. [Included species: Bufo naricus, 

 p. 49, pi. 14, fig. 2; B. nasutus, p. 50, pi. 14, fig. 3; B. semilineatus, p. 51, 

 pi. 21, fig. 1; B. granulosus, p. 51, pi. 21, fig. 2; B. aculirosiris, p. 52, pi. 21, 

 fig. 3; B. proboscideus, p. 52, pi. 21, fig. 4 (all from Brazil).] 



• Oeder, R., Die Zahnleiste der Krote. Zool. Anz., vol. 29, p. 538, 1905. 



• Noble, Q. K., The phylogeny of the Salientia. Bull. Amer. Mas. Nat. Hist., vol. 46, art. 1, p. 20, 1922. 



