Torrent frogs of the genus Petropedetes Reichenow, 1874 as currently understood have a disjunct distribution with species endemic to West, Central or East Africa. We herein present a phylogenetic analysis including all but one of the currently described 12 species of the genus. Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analyses of combined nuclear (rag1, SIA, BDNF) and mitochondrial (16S, 12S, cytb) genes of more than 3500 base pairs, revealed clades corresponding to the three sub-Saharan regions. Molecular results are confirmed by morphological differences. Surprisingly, the three geographic clades do not form a monophyletic group with respect to closely related families Pyxicephalidae and Conrauidae and therefore require taxonomic changes. We resurrect Arthroleptides Nieden, 1911 for the East African taxa. The Central African taxa remain in the genus Petropedetes. The West African members are placed in the new genus Odontobatrachus gen. nov. The taxonomic position of the new genus remains incertae sedis as it was not assigned to any of the four families included in our analyses. Potential new species have been detected within all three major clades, pointing to a still not fully clarified diversity within African torrent frogs.

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Cornell University Ithaca NY 14853 USA

Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali Via Calepina 14 38100 Trento Italy

Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity Invalidenstrasse 43 D 10115 Berlin Germany

Natural History Museum of Geneva Department of Herpetology and Ichthyology C P 6434 1211 Geneva 6 Switzerland

Université of Yaoundé 1 Faculty of Science Laboratory of Zoology P O Box 812 Yaoundé Cameroon

University of Basel Department of Environmental Sciences Klingelbergstr 27 Basel 4056 Switzerland

University of Basel Department of Environmental Sciences Klingelbergstr 27 Basel 4056 Switzerland; Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Kvetna 8 603 65 Brno Czech Republic; National Museum Department of Zoology Cirkusová 1740 CZ 19300 Prague Czech Republic

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