Evolution and classification

Amphibians were not the first tetrapods, but as a group they diverged from the stock that would soon, in a paleontological sense, become the amniotes and the ancestors of modern reptiles and amphibians. Tetrapods are descendants from a group of sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fishes. Precisely which group of sarcopterygians is still debated, although the consensus has shifted from the lungfishes (order Dipnoi) to an ancestor within a group of related fishes: family Panderichthyidae of order Osteolepiformes or fishes of the order Porolepiformes. The interrelationships of this group of sarcopterygian fishes have various interpretations, although their monophyly (derivation from a common ancestor) is highly probable. This aspect means that they all share a similar morphology and possess traits that served as structural predecessors for the evolution of terrestrial adaptations.

The first tetrapods were not terrestrial animals. Instead, they were likely fully aquatic and probably lived in shallow water and dense vegetation. It is unknown what evolutionary forces drove the transition from fins to limbs, although one hypothesis suggests that limblike appendages were more effective for helping a stalking predator move through dense vegetation. One alternative hypothesis proposes that fin-limbs were used by early terrestrial vertebrates to move from drying pool to drying pool; this hypothesis is largely discounted because of other terrestrial adaptations required to survive an arduous and desiccating journey. The transformation of vertebrates from an aquatic lifestyle to a terrestrial one extended over more than 80 million years from the Early Devonian into the Early Pennsylvanian Epoch.

The sarcopterygian ancestor possessed two traits necessary for the evolution of a limbed terrestrial animal: lungs, which provide the ability to breathe air, and appendages with internal skeletal support extending beyond the muscle mass of the trunk. Lungs appeared in bony fishes well before the fish-tetrapod transition. They existed in the ancestors of both the ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) and fleshy-finned fishes (Sarcopterygii). In the former, the lungs or air sacs became swim bladders for buoyancy regulation, and in the latter, the lungs were used for aerial respiration.

Aerial respiration requires a cycle of airflow in and out of the lung. This flow refreshes the air and provides a steep diffusion gradient for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide across the tissue interface separating air and blood. Respiration (that is, ventilation) in fishes uses water pressure, with the fish rising to the surface and gulping air. Closing its mouth, the fish dives; because the head is lower than the air sac, the water pressure on the bottom of the mouth forces the air rearward into the “lungs.” The process is reversed as the fish rises to the surface, expelling the air from the lungs prior to breaking the surface for another gulp of air. From this passive buccal (mouth-cavity) ventilation, the early tetrapods developed a muscle-driven buccal pump mechanism. The buccal pump remains functional in living amphibians.

The transition from fins to limbs began in the water and was probably completed in a largely aquatic animal. Because of the buoyancy of water, the evolving limb structure emphasized flexibility (the development of joints that bend at an angle rather than curving) over support. The limbs did not have to support the entire body mass, rather a fraction of the total. Instead of support, the limbs would simply push the fish-tetrapod forward, presumably as the fish walked along the bottom of a body of water. The limb movement sequence would have been the standard diagonal sequence used widely by quadrupedal animals. Presumably, the first changes involved the development of knee, elbow, ankle, and wrist joints. Concurrently, the fin-ray section of the fin would decline in size. Eventually, it would be lost and replaced by skeletal elements. As the animal spent more time out of water, the limbs were required to support the total body weight for longer periods, so natural selection would favour a stronger and tightly linked skeleton.

This strengthening required the firm anchoring of the pelvic girdle to the axial skeleton (vertebral column) because hind limbs must support the body while providing the main propulsive force in tetrapod locomotion. The pectoral girdle attaches to the skull in fishes; however, as the forelimbs became the main steering force in tetrapod locomotion, the animal required a flexible neck, and the pectoral girdle lost its attachment to the skull. Selection also favoured a more rigid vertebral column to counter the full effect of gravity during terrestrial locomotion. The support between the vertebrae paralleled the development of sliding and overlapping processes that firmly link adjacent vertebrae. These processes provided vertical rigidity and permitted lateral flexibility. Changes in the musculature promoted limb extension and flexion, and strongly linked adjacent sets of vertebrae and their girdles to the vertebral column.

Other anatomical changes associated with a transition to a terrestrial lifestyle included modifications to feeding structures, skin, and sense organs. Feeding on land required more head mobility to move the mouth to food, and the tongue developed to promote the manipulation of food once in the mouth. Through the development of keratinous tissues, the skin became somewhat more resistant to desiccation (dehydration) and better equipped to resist the increased frictional abrasion from the air and particulates (such as sand and dust) of the terrestrial environment. To fit this new environment, natural selection favoured adjustments to sense organs. The lateral-line system disappeared, and the eyes were adapted for vision through an aerial medium. Sound reception became more important, and auditory elements appeared. The nasal chamber became a dual channel: one channel allowed the passage of air for respiration, whereas the other allowed the intake of odours (olfaction).

In shape and habitat, the fish ancestral types such as Eusthenopteron or Panderichthys were somewhat different from the earliest tetrapods, Ichthyostega or Acanthostega. Both groups had heavy fusiform bodies (about 1 metre [3 feet] long); heavy, bluntly pointed heads with large mouths; short robust appendages; and thick, finned tails. This transition from fish to tetrapods occurred during the Devonian Period, and the Ichthyostegalia, a group of amphibian-like tetrapods that included Ichthyostega, persisted throughout much of the Late Devonian Epoch. Thereafter, there is a gap in the fossil record. When tetrapods reappear in the Late Mississippian Epoch, the new tetrapods are both amphibians and anthracosaurs, a group of tetrapods with some reptile traits. Dozens of amphibians and anthracosaurs lived from Late Mississippian and Pennsylvanian times. The true amphibians included edopoids, eryopoids, colosteids, trimerorhachoids, and microsaurs. The representatives of the anthracosaurs included the embolomers, baphetids, and limnoscelids. Nectrideans and aistopods are often identified as amphibians, but they might be better grouped with the anthracosaurs or listed separately.

The amphibians showed the greatest diversity in structure and lifestyle. The colosteids were small elongated aquatic animals with well-developed limbs. The eel-like aistopods were delicate limbless creatures; all were less than 100 cm (about 39 inches) long and presumably either aquatic or semiaquatic; their fragile skulls probably precluded a burrowing existence. The microsaurs, as the name implies, were small lizardlike (or salamander-like) amphibians, less than 15 cm (6 inches) in total length. All microsaurs had well-developed limbs, although they were sometimes small relative to the body and tail. Their appearance and diversity suggest a varied lifestyle similar to that of modern salamanders.

Although most of the amphibians of the Carboniferous Period (358.9 million to 298.9 million years ago) were relatively small and predominately aquatic, some eryopoids—such as Eryops—were strong-limbed, stout-bodied, large (to 2 metres [about 7 feet]) terrestrial animals. Many of the Carboniferous amphibians and anthracosaur groups persisted into the early part of the Permian Period (298.9 million to 251.9 million years ago). The Permian climate became increasing arid, and this change seemed to favour the amniotes, which became progressively more abundant and diverse during this era. As a result of these changing climatic conditions, the ancient amphibian groups largely disappeared by the end of the Permian Period.

The Triassic Period (251.9 million to 201.3 million years ago) reveals few amphibian fossils, although one—Triadobatrachus massinoti, from the Early Triassic—is especially important. Though this amphibian has many froglike traits, it is not a true frog. It has the long legs, shortened trunk, and broad head of the typical frog body form. Caudal vertebrae were unfused, not yet forming the rodlike urostyle, but they did lie within the arch formed by elongated ilia. Thereafter, froglike tetrapods disappear from the fossil record until Middle Jurassic times. Frogs from the middle of the Jurassic Period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago) and thereafter possess the general morphology of extant frogs. This group includes one family, Discoglossidae, which has living species. Most other frog families do not occur in the fossil record until the Paleocene or Eocene Epoch between 66 million and 33.9 million years ago.

The salamander-like albanerpetontids appeared contemporaneously with the Jurassic frogs. They persisted throughout the remainder of the Mesozoic Era (251.9 million to 66 million years ago) and into the early part of the Neogene Period (23 million to 2.6 million years ago), but they did not seem to radiate beyond a few species. While they appear salamander-like, the albanerpetontids are at best the sister group of the order Caudata. One group of salamanders, the Batrachosauroididae, appeared in the Late Jurassic and persisted until the Early Pliocene Period. The most-diverse group of living salamanders, the Salamandroidea (a suborder of order Caudata), evolved near the end of the Jurassic Period—the oldest known fossil members of the lineage being Qinglongtriton and Beiyanerpeton. Most modern salamander families, however, did not appear until the early part of the Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago to the present).

In contrast, a single caecilian is known from the Early Jurassic Period, and a few caecilian vertebrae have been found in rock layers dating to near the end of the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 66 million years ago). Only a scattering of fossil remains has been found in more recent rock layers.