The Lissamphibian Fossil Record of South America

Anurans, along with urodeles and caecilians are the extant representatives of the clade Lissamphibia. Nowadays, lissamphibians are widely distributed in all continents, except Antarctica, but are particularly diversified in South America, where almost 3,000 species are found. This huge biodiversity is directly related to the complex geologic history of South America, which includes key events like the Gondwanan breakup, its isolation during parts of Mesozoic and Cenozoic, the Andean uplift, and the formation of the Panamá isthmus. Here, we present the most comprehensive bibliographic review of fossil lissamphibians from South America to date, covering unpublished (e.g. theses and dissertations) and published data (i.e. peer-reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, monographs, and conferences abstracts). We use a mixed approach, both qualitative (with brief comments on each taxon and specimen) and quantitative (including scientometric parameters). Compared to the latest published reviews with similar scope, our results indicate that approximately 85.4% of the records correspond to specimens new to science or older ones that have been revisited. These materials come from 164 different fossil-bearing localities, spread over eight of the twelve South American countries, and range from the Early Jurassic to the Quaternary. In total, we compile 273 records, mostly anurans (~97.6%), followed by indeterminate caecilians (~1.4%) and urodeles (~1%). Additionally, we discuss issues directly related to those fossil occurrences, such as their temporal and geographic range, as well as the presence of putative biological and taphonomic biases. Finally, we also provide calibration constraints for several anuran taxa.