Oral structures and their development in egg‐brooding hylid frog embryos and larvae: Evolutionary and ecological implications

Among egg-brooding hylid frogs there is much interspecific variation in the degree of development of the young at hatching. In certain species of Gastrotheca the eggs hatch into free-living tadpoles, whereas in others (and in the genera Amphignathodon, Cryptobatrachus, Stefania and Hemiphractus) the eggs hatch directly into frogs. We examined the oral anatomy of tadpoles and embryos of 22 species of egg-brooding hylids in order to determine the morphological differences between free-living larvae and embryos of species having direct development. All free-living Gastrotheca larvae are morphologically similar and have a large array of oral structures directly associated with a suspension feeding way of life. Among those egg-brooding hylids without free-living larvae there is a complete gradation from those with all of the free-living tadpole oral structures to those with none. Different lineages retain different vestiges of free-living larval morphology, suggesting that direct development has evolved multiple times among these frogs. All of the morphological patterns in the direct-developing embryos can be accounted for by simple truncation or acceleration of the normal tadpole developmental program. We explore the possibility that certain Gastrotheca species with tadpoles may have evolved from species that lack larval stages. The development of oral structures in egg-brooding hylids provides insight into the phylogenetic significance of these charactes in other groups of anurans. Most significantly they reinforce the idea that microhylids evolved from ranoidlike ancestors.