Lissamphibia is a biological subclass of animal that includes all recent amphibians. The name derives from the Latin for smooth amphibia.
Living amphibians fall into one of three orders — the Anura (frogs and toads), the Caudata or Urodela (salamanders and newts), and the Gymnophiona or Apoda (the limbless caecilians).
Though the ancestry of each group is unclear, all share certain common characteristics—which indicates they evolved from a common ancestor and so form a clade. The publication of a Permian-period stem form Gerobatrachus hottoni showed the frogs and salamanders had a common ancestor more recently (ca 290 Ma) than had been thought by using the molecular clock alone.
Lissamphibia is a biological subclass of animal that includes all recent amphibians. The name derives from the Latin for smooth amphibia.
Living amphibians fall into one of three orders — the Anura (frogs and toads), the Caudata or Urodela (salamanders and newts), and the Gymnophiona or Apoda (the limbless caecilians).
Though the ancestry of each group is unclear, all share certain common characteristics—which indicates they evolved from a common ancestor and so form a clade. The publication of a Permian-period stem form Gerobatrachus hottoni showed the frogs and salamanders had a common ancestor more recently (ca 290 Ma) than had been thought by using the molecular clock alone.