Myobatrachidae, commonly known as Australian ground frogs or Australian water frogs, is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of frogs found in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

less than long, to the second-largest frog in Australia, the giant barred frog (''Mixophyes iteratus''), at in length. The entire family is either terrestrial or aquatic frogs, with no arboreal species.

Characteristics

The family Myobatrachidae contains forms of parental care unique in the animal kingdom. The two species of gastric-brooding frog (genus: ''Rheobatrachus''), are found in this family. The females of these species swallow their young, where they develop until

metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and different ...

. 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 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 tadpoles, with the eggs hatching directly into miniature frogs. These frogs lack adhesive toe discs found in the tree frogs. 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 as a subfamily of Myobatrachidae.

Notes

References

* {{Authority control 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 Fauna of the Australasian realm