Brachycephaloidea (composed of 1183 species) is the most diverse superfamily of amphibians. In recent years, molecular techniques utilizing genetic markers have significantly improved our understanding of the phylogeny of this superfamily. However, with the expansion of molecular techniques, phenotypic characters have received increasingly less attention. In an effort to highlight the contributions that phenotypic characters can make to understanding the phylogeny of Brachycephaloidea, we studied novel characters from pelvic and thigh musculature and digital discs on fingers. On this basis, we provide new phenotypic synapomorphies to recognize three clades previously recognized solely on the basis of DNA. The first two synapomorphies, related to the origins of the m. iliacus externus and m. tensor fasciae latae, diagnose Ceuthomantis and Phrynopus, respectively. The third synapomorphy, related to the relative size of the disc on finger I, diagnoses the Pristimantis conspicillatus species group, which is the largest species group within the species-rich genus Pristimantis. We conclude that phenotypic data are a valuable source of evidence in testing phylogenetic hypotheses of Brachycephaloidea and emphasize the need to reassess all phenotypic characters previously used in brachycephaloid taxonomy to delimit them objectively as transformation series and include them in total evidence analyses.

中文翻译：

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新的表型突触界定了新大陆直接发育青蛙的三个基于分子的进化枝（两栖类：无尾：短头蛙类）

Brachycephaloidea（由 1183 个物种组成）是最多样化的两栖动物超科。近年来，利用遗传标记的分子技术显着提高了我们对这个超家族系统发育的理解。然而，随着分子技术的扩展，表型特征越来越少受到关注。为了突出表型特征对理解短头动物的系统发育的贡献，我们研究了来自骨盆和大腿肌肉组织以及手指上的数字盘的新特征。在此基础上，我们提供了新的表型突触来识别以前仅基于 DNA 识别的三个进化枝。前两个突触，与 m 的起源有关。髂外肌和m。阔筋膜张肌，诊断 Ceuthomantis 和 Phrynopus，分别。第三个突触与手指 I 上椎间盘的相对大小有关，诊断出 Pristimantis conspicillatus 物种群，这是物种丰富的 Pristimantis 属中最大的物种群。我们得出结论，表型数据是检验短头颅亚目系统发育假设的宝贵证据来源，并强调需要重新评估以前在短头颅亚目分类学中使用的所有表型特征，以客观地将它们界定为转化系列，并将其纳入总证据分析中。