The first pre-Holocene (Cretaceous) record of Anura from Madagascar

Recent expeditions to Upper Cretaceous strata in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar have established the first pre-Holocene record of frogs from that landmass. At least two differently-sized frogs are represented by a sacrum, an atlas, and an angulosplenial. The sacrum possesses a combination of characters present in sacra of neobatrachian frogs from southern continents, and the atlas resembles those found among the Pelobatidae. The angulosplenial is clearly anuran but it cannot be identified more precisely. Two other elements-a premaxilla and a cranial element (probably squamosal)-are tentatively assigned to die Anura. These fossils document the existence of multiple anuran taxa on Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous-The tentative referral of the atlas to the Pelobatidae implies that this taxon, best known from northern continents, previously had a more cosmopolitan distribution.