Mountain Yellow-legged Frog (Rana muscosa) Fact Sheet: Taxonomy & History

Taxonomic History

• Muscosa means "mossy" in Latin
• Originally classified as (Grinnel and Camp 1917)
• Rana boylii sierrae (northern population)
• Rana boylii muscosa (southern population)
• Zweifel (1955) classified both populations as a single species, Rana muscosa
• DNA analysis supports 2 distinct species: Rana sierrae and Rana muscosa (Vredenburg 2007)
  

Common Names

• Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, California Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog

Order and Species

• 22 families of frogs and toads make up the order Anura
• 21 North American species in genus Rana (including R. muscosa)

6 native species of Rana found in western United States

• R. boylii, R aurora, R. muscosa, R. sierrae, R. pretiosa, and R. cascadae (Macey 2001)

R. muscosa and R. sierrae diverged approximately 2.2 million years ago (Shaffer 2000)

• A geographic area between Kings Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park separate R. muscosa and R. sierrae
• Closely related populations of snake, salamander, newt, and toad are also separated by same area

Popular cultural references

• Documentary appearances
  • Big Chill Helps Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog (2010, PBS)
    • An interview with Jeff Lemm on the captive breeding program
  • Frogs: The Thin Green Line (2009, PBS)
    • Filmed in Yosemite
    • Focus on conservation and reintroduction efforts
• Public media
  •  Endangered SoCal Frog Species Coming Back Thanks to Zoo by Chris Jennewein (07 August 2015, Times of San Diego)
    • 200 tadpoles and 27 froglets, or metamorphs were released into Fuller Mill Creek, north of Idyllwild.
    Frogs for the Future. July 24, 2015, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Wildlife Field Notes.
    • First-hand account from an SDZWA Researcher working in San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance's captive breeding and recovery program
  • Tiny Transmitters for Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs: Freshwater Species of the Week by Brian Clark Howard (14 June 2013, National Geographic Voices)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Amphibia

Order: Anura (frogs and toads), Anura means "tailess" in Greek

Family: Ranidae (true frogs)

Genus: Rana

Species: R. muscosa (southern population)
Species: R. sierrae (northern population)  

Describer: Camp, C.L. (1917). Notes on the systematic status of the toads and frogs of California. University of California Publications in Zoology, 17:115–125.

Camp (1917)
Macey et al. (2001)
Shaffer et al. (2000)
Grinnel and Camp (1917)
Zweifel (1955)
Vredenburg (2007)