WXenopus is a genus of highly aquatic frogs native to sub-Saharan Africa. Twenty species are currently described within it. The two best-known species of this genus are Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis, which are commonly studied as model organisms for developmental biology, cell biology, toxicology, neuroscience and for modelling human disease and birth defects.
WThe African clawed frog is a species of African aquatic frog of the family Pipidae. Its name is derived from the three short claws on each hind foot, which it uses to tear apart its food. The word Xenopus means "strange foot" and laevis means "smooth".
WThe Cameroon clawed frog is a species of frog in the family Pipidae found in Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and possibly Sudan. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, heavily degraded former forest, and ponds. It is threatened by habitat loss.
WFraser's platanna is a species of frogs in the family Pipidae found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and possibly Rwanda.
WThe Lake Oku clawed frog is a species of frog in the family Pipidae, endemic to Lake Oku, a small crater lake in northwest Cameroon. It is a small, dark-coloured, fully aquatic frog with a length of 28 to 36 mm, males being slightly smaller than females. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated this frog as "critically endangered" on the basis of its small area of occurrence at a single location, and the possibility that introduction of non-native fish into the lake could cause the frog to be wiped out.
WXenopus victorianus, the Lake Victoria clawed frog or Mwanza frog, is a species of frogs in the family Pipidae. It is found in aquatic habitats in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania. However, because of confusion with Xenopus laevis, the exact distribution is quite unclear.
WThe volcano clawed frog is a species of frog in the family Pipidae endemic to Cameroon. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, swamps, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, pastureland, and aquaculture ponds. It is threatened by habitat loss.
WThe western clawed frog is a species of frog in the family Pipidae, also known as tropical clawed frog. It is the only species in the genus Xenopus to have a diploid genome. Its genome has been sequenced, making it a significant model organism for genetics that complements the related species Xenopus laevis, a widely used vertebrate model for developmental biology. X. tropicalis also has a number of advantages over X. laevis in research, such as a much shorter generation time, smaller size, and a larger number of eggs per spawn.