Zoological Studies

Morphological Assessments and Phylogenetic Relationships of the Seychellean Frogs of the Family Sooglossidae (Amphibia: Anura)

Ronald A. Nussbaum and Sheng-Hai Wu (2007) The frog family Sooglossidae is endemic to the Seychelles Is. in the Indian Ocean, and consists of 2 genera and 4 species, the monotypic Nesomantis and Sooglossus (3 species).  Many previous studies have suggested that Sooglossus sechellensis is more similar to Nesomantis thomasseti than to its congener, S. gardineri. Based on an extensive dataset of 188 morphological characters, we concluded that Nesomantis and S. sechellensis form a monophyletic group with the exclusion of S. gardineri (and S. pipilodryas).  We therefore have established a new genus, Sechellophryne, to accommodate the latter 2 species.