The complete mitochondrial genome of a relic salamander, Ranodon sibiricus (Amphibia: Caudata) and implications for amphibian phylogeny

摘要

The Amphibia were the dominant land Vertebrates in the Carboniferous and were certainly the stock from which the reptiles and in turn the mammals and birds evolved. Although two major groups of extinct amphibians, the Labyrinthodontia and the Lepospondyli did not last beyond the Triassic, amphibian lines evidently continued and are represented today by the three distinctly different groups of modern Amphibia (Lissamphibia), the Caudata, Anura, and Gymnophiona. The monophyly of the Lissamphibia and their phylogenetic relationships are still debated. The most widely accepted hypothesis, based on morphological data, support the monophyletic origin in the Late Paleozoic (300 myr) of the three living amphibian orders and a sister-group relationship between Anura and Caudata (the Batrachia hypothesis) (Laurin and Reisz, 1997; Trueb and Cloutier, 1991).