Palaeobatrachidae is an extinct family of frogs known from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

to the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

primarily of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. They were highly adapted to aquatic life, like other members of the

Pipimorpha Pipimorpha is an unranked clade containing all frogs which are more closely related to living Pipidae species than to living '' Rhinophrynus'' species. Members of this group are highly adapted to aquatic life. The oldest pipimorphs are ''Neusiba ...

. The oldest undoubted records of the family are from the lower

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campani ...

(83.6-77.9 million years ago) of France. By far the most abundant genus is '' Palaeobatrachus'', known from the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

to Pleistocene of Europe, with most other named genera in the family synonymised with it, the only exception being ''

Albionbatrachus ''Albionbatrachus'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric frogs from England and Romania. Two species are recognized: While previously synonymised with '' Palaeobatrachus'', it is now considered a distinct palaeobatrachid genus based on characters ...

,'' which is distinguished from ''Palaeobatrachus'' by characters of its frontoparietals. The youngest fossils of ''Palaeobatrachus'' date to around 500,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene after which they likely became extinct due to increasing aridity and freezing temperatures during the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

s. Fossils of indeterminate palaeobatrachids are also known from the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

Western Siberia Western Siberia or West Siberia (russian: Западная Сибирь, Zapadnaya Sibir'; kk, Батыс Сібір) is a part of the larger region of Siberia that is mostly located in the Russian Federation. It lies between the Ural region a ...

References

Pipoidea Prehistoric amphibian families {{mesobatrachia-stub