Talk:Tailed frog

Use of term primitive

I am confused about the use of the term primitive in this article. The family is called primitve because it is the sister group to all other frogs, but it is not clear that the actual characteristics described as primitive are in fact shared with the common ancestor. In particular, it seems unlikely that the particular antibacterial secretions of this family were primitive and lost in all other frogs - it seems more likely that this is a derived characteristic. The source presents these chemicals as derived characteristics that have undergone evolution within this family.

It seems that because the family has been denoted primitive that all of its charactistics have been assumed primitive. I think it is questionable to describe a family as primitive because it is a sister group to a wider group (are the chelicerata primitive within the arthropods, for example?). I don't know if the number of vertebrae is a primitive characteristic as is claimed in the article - this would be interesting, but the assertion is made without any reference. Anropa (talk) 18:41, 24 September 2023 (UTC)