Myobatrachidae, commonly known as Australian ground frogs or Australian water frogs, is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
frogs
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...
found in Australia and
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
less than long, to the second-largest frog in Australia, the
giant barred frog
The giant barred frog (''Mixophyes iteratus'') is a species of barred frog found in Australia. It occurs from south-eastern Queensland to just south of the Newcastle region in New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wale ...
(''Mixophyes iteratus''), at in length. The entire family is either terrestrial or
aquatic frogs, with no
arboreal
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose nu ...
species.
Characteristics
The family Myobatrachidae contains forms of parental care unique in the animal kingdom. The two species of
gastric-brooding frog
The gastric-brooding frogs or platypus frogs (''Rheobatrachus'') is a genus of extinct ground-dwelling frogs native to Queensland in eastern Australia. The genus consisted of only two species, both of which became extinct in the mid-1980s. The g ...
(genus: ''Rheobatrachus''), are found in this family. The females of these species swallow their young, where they develop until
metamorphosis. The
pouched frog (''Assa darlingtoni'') has pouches on the sides of its body. The male will guard the eggs until hatching, and assist the tadpoles into its side, where they stay until metamorphosis.
Another form of parental care, although not unique, is found in many species of the genus ''
Limnodynastes'', where the male buries himself near an
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
mass, and protects the eggs.
While many species are adapted to burrowing, helping them survive in semiarid or seasonally arid environments, the
turtle frog and
sandhill frog go so far as to lay their eggs directly into moist sand several feet below the surface, rather than into water. These species lack
tadpole
A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found ...
s, with the eggs hatching directly into miniature frogs.
[
These frogs lack adhesive toe discs found in the ]tree frog
A tree frog (or treefrog) is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia have given rise to treefrogs, although they are not closely rela ...
s. The family is broken into subfamilies based mainly upon their egg-laying habits. Those of the subfamily Limnodynastinae lay foam nests. The female creates foam by agitating a chemical on her skin with her hands. The foam may float on top of water, or be on land. The subfamily Rheobatrachinae contains the two species of gastric-brooding frogs, and the rest are within the subfamily Myobatrachinae.
Taxonomy
The following genera are recognised in the family Myobatrachidae. Some taxonomists split these genera into two subfamilies, Myobatrachinae and Rheobatrachinae, while other sources include Limnodynastinae
Limnodynastidae, commonly known as the Australian ground frogs, is a family of frogs found in Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands
The Aru Islands Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Aru) is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Ma ...
as a subfamily of Myobatrachidae.
Notes
References
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q56058
Myobatrachoidea
Amphibian families
Amphibians of Australia
Amphibians of New Guinea
Amphibians of Papua New Guinea
Oligocene amphibians
Extant Chattian first appearances
Taxa named by Hermann Schlegel
Australasian realm fauna