Red-legged Frog

Red-legged Frog is a common name for a particular kind of frog of the west coast of North Americawhich is further subdivided into:

* California Red-legged Frog, "Rana draytonii"
* Northern Red-legged Frog, "Rana aurora"

These two have long been thought mere subspecies of "Rana aurora", "R. a. draytonii" and "R. a. aurora", respectively, with "Red-legged Frog" accordingly applying to that species as a whole. Analysis of mtDNA cytochrome "b" sequence data points to their being two distinct species however. [Shaffer "et al." (2004)]

:"See also" Cryptic species complex

Footnotes

References

* (2004): Species boundaries, phylogeography and conservation genetics of the red-legged frog ("Rana aurora/draytonii") complex. "Molecular Ecology" 13(9): 2667–2677. [http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pt-reyes/pdfs/RLF%20taxonomy%20-%20Aug%202004.pdf PDF fulltext]