Mesobatrachia

Mesobatrachia
Rhinophrynus dorsalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Amphibia
Subclass:	Lissamphibia
Superorder:	Batrachia
Order:	Anura
Suborder:	Mesobatrachia
Families
Megophryidae Pelobatidae Pelodytidae Scaphiopodidae Rhinophrynidae Pipidae

Mesobatrachia is the second largest of the Anura suborders of amphibians. It contains 6 families, 20 genera and 168 species. This is, of course, not matched to the 5,047 species noted in the Neobatrachia suborder. The name suggests they are moderately old (compared to the prefixes archeo- "ancient" and neo- "new" of the other two suborders).

Mesobatrachia are a relatively new group, only having been identified as such in 1993.

References

• Gissi, Carmela; Diego San Mauro, Graziano Pesole and Rafael Zardoya (February 2006). "Mitochondrial phylogeny of Anura (Amphibia): A case study of congruent phylogenetic reconstruction using amino acid and nucleotide characters". Gene 366 (2): 228–237. doi:10.1016/j.gene.2005.07.034. PMID 16307849. 
• San Mauro, Diego; Miguel Vences, Marina Alcobendas, Rafael Zardoya and Axel Meyer (May 2005). "Initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea". American Naturalist 165 (5): 590–599. doi:10.1086/429523. PMID 15795855.