| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 生命科學系所 === 97 === Tadpole morphology is considered the result of adaptation to different habitats, and has not been used frequently in phylogenetic analysis. I examined ontogenetic series of the features in oral and buccopharyngeal cavity of tadpoles of Rhacophorid treefrogs from Taiwan, in order to understand if tadpole morphological characters are phylogenetically informative. Species from Dicroglossidae, Mantellidae and Ranidae were used as outgroups to polarize tadple characters from four genera and six rhacophorid specises. Most tadpole characters remained invariable after Gosner stage 30, except for papillae in the buccal roof area and buccal floor area, and for the tongue anlage, which still showed variability after Gosner stage 35. In Rana sauteri and in two Buergeria species, all character states were stable from stages 25 to 27, whereas in Kurixalus idiootocus, Polypedates megacephalus, and Rhacophorus moltrechti, characters remained variable until stage 30. In Kurixalus eiffingeri, many character states were unassessible due to oophagy specializations. I coded 52 oral and buccopharyngeal cavity characters to construct phylogeny, oral features appear to be environmentally determined and deviate from current phylogenetic hypothesis of the rhacophorids; characters of the buccopharyngeal cavity contain more phylogenetic information and conform better to the evolutionary relationships derived from other characters.
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