Abstract
IN reference to the question raised by the reviewer (NATURE, December 14, 1911) of my paper on the amphibian faunas of South Africa and Madagascar (Annals Transvaal Museum, April, 1911), the distribution of the genus Rana suggests that it originated in the Old World some time subsequent to the isolation of Madagascar and the disruption of the Brazil-West African land bridge, its passage to the New World being effected by a more northern bridge, probably the Bering Straits connection. The other Ranid genera of central and tropical America are unknown to me, but, judging from the descriptions, they form quite an isolated group, and if genetically related to the Old World Ranid had their origin, not in the specialised genus Rana, but in a more primitive Ranid stock which entered the New World by the Brazil-West African bridge.
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HEWITT, J. Amphibian Faunas of South Africa and Madagascar. Nature 88, 449 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/088449c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/088449c0
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