Evolutionary reproductive morphology of amphibians: an overview

摘要

Reproduction is a crucial trait in the life history of any organism, and vertebrates, whether aquatic or terrestrial, have evolved an extraordinary diversity of reproductive strategies and morphologies. Among tetrapods, the diversity of reproductive modes is exceptionally high in amphibians, who also show multiple trends towards terrestrialisation and internal fertilisation. Herein we give a brief overview of the diversity of amphibian reproductive morphology, with a special emphasis on the cloaca, for all three major lineages, i.e., anurans, urodeles and caecilians.