Thoraciliacus Temporal range:
Lower-
Upper Cretaceous,
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Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Anura |
Clade: | Pipimorpha |
Genus: | †
Thoraciliacus Nevo, 1968 [1] |
Species: | †T. rostriceps
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Binomial name | |
†Thoraciliacus rostriceps Nevo, 1968
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Thoraciliacus rostriceps is an extinct species of frog from the Cretaceous period and the only species of the genus Thoraciliacus, which is classified in the unranked clade Pipimorpha. [2] Fossils of T. rostriceps were found in Makhtesh Ramon, Negev Desert, Israel and it is believed they lived during the Barremian. [3] Other fossils have been found near Marydale, South Africa in an Upper Cretaceous lake. [3] [4]
Thoraciliacus rostriceps was a small frog, 32 millimetres (1.3 in) in length, with a large head. It had short hind limbs but its hands and feet were relatively large. [5] Like its close relative Nevobatrachus gracilis, T. rostriceps was highly aquatic evidenced by its flat skull, short axial column and long metapodials. [6]