Sooglossidae

The Seychelles frogs (Sooglossidae) are a family of frogs found on the Seychelles Islands and in India. Until recently, this family was believed to include the genera Sechellophryne, Nesomantis and Sooglossus, but following a major revision of amphibians in 2006, the genus Nesomantis was named a junior synonym of Sooglossus. Their closest relatives are the purple frogs (Nasikabatrachidae) of India. All Sooglossidae species are relatively small terrestrial frogs, about 4 cm (1.6 in) in length, hiding under fallen leaves or in rock crevices. They are unusual for the neobatrachials, in that they undertake inguinal amplexus, a primitive version of amplexus. They lay their eggs on moist ground, rather than in water. Several species lack tadpoles, with the eggs hatching directly into froglets. The tadpoles of S. sechellensis are carried, abnormally, on the backs of the female frogs until metamorphosis. There is no fossil record for the family. Ancestors diverged when the Seychelles Islands split from India about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous. The family was first described in 1931 by Gladwyn Kingsley Noble (1894–1940). Genetic analysis indicates that some of the species that occur on multiple islands should actually be divided into multiple different lineages or evolutionarily significant units, and possibly even distinct species.