Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
All amphibians recovered so far from
Dominican amber are leptodactylid frogs
belonging to the genus
Eleutherodactylus
(Poinar and Cannatella, 1987). Such frogs
can develop in phytotelmata. Quite a
number of fossil anoles and geckos have
been found in Dominican amber, and
both groups occur in Hispaniola today.
Anoles are thin, long-tailed, tree-climbing
lizards which can change their skin
color like chameleons. Geckos (
282
) are
commoner, and their adhesive foot-pads
aid in tree-climbing. Snakes are repre-
sented by fragments of shed skin and birds
mainly by isolated feathers. Only one
feather has been identified, to a family of
small woodpeckers (Leybourne
et al
.,
1994;
283
) and a hummingbird eggshell
(Poinar
et al
., 2007). Mammals have
mainly been recognized by their hairs and
282
282 Head of a gecko
Sphaerodactylus PC. Length
about 17 mm 0.7 in.
283
283 Contour feather of a
small woodpecker Picidae
PC. Length about 10 mm
0.4 in.
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