Roughly nine out of ten living amphibian species are frogs. They’re incredibly diverse and successful, and they have been since the Jurassic Period. But the origins of frogs and their fellow modern amphibians is shrouded in mystery. In this episode, we discuss what makes frogs special, what their fossil record looks like, and what paleontologists know and don’t know about the earliest evolution of modern amphibians.

In the news: colorful insects, salamander evolution, saber-toothed marsupials, and venomous caecilians?

Time markers: Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:04:30Main discussion, Part 1: 00:36:00Main discussion, Part 2: 01:11:00Patron question: 01:41:00

Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/

New merch at the Common Descent Store! http://zazzle.com/common_descentFeaturing art by Rob Soto! https://www.rob-soto.com/

Follow and Support us on: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPCFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcastInstagram: @commondescentpodcast PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw

The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org.

Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/