Rhinella loba

Rhinella loba[1] is an extinct true toad that inhabited the South American Pampas during the late Pliocene (ca. 3.5 million years ago). It is closely related to the present day Argentine toad Rhinella arenarum and represents to date the only diagnosable extinct true toad species from South America.

Rhinella loba
Temporal range: late Pliocene
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Rhinella loba - Partial fossil skull (holotype) in dorsal view
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Bufonidae
Genus: Rhinella
Species:
†R. loba
Binomial name
†Rhinella loba
Pérez-Ben, Gómez, Báez, 2019[1]

Provenance

Rhinella loba takes its name from the locality of Punta Lobería from which it comes,[1] one of several fossil-yielding localities in the coastal cliffs along the southern shoreline of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The type material come from upper stratigraphic levels of the Chapadmalal Formation (late Pliocene).

Description
Rhinella loba - Life restoration (by Raúl Orencio Gómez)

Rhinella loba is a large true toad with a very broad skull roof. Their thick roofing bones are heavily ornamented with tubercles and projected onto the orbits through poorly inclined crests.[1] These features jointly occur only in the Argentine toad among the species of the Rhinella marina group,[2] but this living toad has a distinctly narrower skull roof. In life it would have looked like a large Argentine toad but with a broader head as that of the cururu toad.

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References
  1. Pérez-Ben, Celeste M.; Gómez, Raúl O.; Báez, Ana M. (2019-04-04). "A new Pliocene true toad (Anura: Bufonidae): first record of an extinct species from South America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 39: e1576183. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1576183. ISSN 0272-4634.
  2. Pérez Ben, Celeste M.; Gómez, Raúl O.; Báez, Ana M. (2014-06-07). "Intraspecific morphological variation and its implications in the taxonomic status of ' Bufo pisanoi ,' a Pliocene anuran from eastern Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34 (4): 767–773. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.839452. ISSN 0272-4634.
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