Tarahumara Frog

Open encyclopedia reference

The Tarahumara frog (Lithobates tarahumarae) is a species of frog in the family Ranidae found in Mexico and the southwestern United States, where it became regionally extinct in the early 1980s. Contributing factors include air pollution, chytridiomycosis and introduced species. Its natural habitats are streams and plunge pools in canyons in oak and pine–oak woodland, and foothill thorn scrub and tropical deciduous forest in the Pacific coast tropical area. Permanent water is necessary for reproduction.

In the early 2000s, wildlife managers reintroduced Tarahumara frogs to several of their historical locations in Arizona. This effort was largely unsuccessful due to the persistence of chytrid fungus in the environment, but refugium populations were established at chytrid-free sites outside their historical range (one at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and another at the International Wildlife Museum).

The Tarahumara are a well-known indigenous tribe from the Copper Canyon of northern Mexico.

Wikipedia contributors, Tarahumara frog; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:52:29.074659+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Lithobates tarahumarae (Boulenger, 1917)

Name authority

(Boulenger, 1917)

Common name

Tarahumara Frog

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Amphibia

Order

Anura

Family

Ranidae

Genus

Lithobates

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAmphibia
9. orderAnura
10. familyRanidae Batsch, 1796
11. genusLithobates Fitzinger, 1843
12. speciesLithobates tarahumarae (Boulenger, 1917)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Lithobates. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 320 records assigned to Ranidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=775118 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3VHR2. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.