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Myobatrachidae
The Common Eastern Froglet (Crinia signifera)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Amphibia Order: Anura Family: Myobatrachidae Schlegel, 1850
Distribution of Myobatrachidae (in black)
Subfamilies
See text

Myobatrachidae is a family of frogs, of the order Anura. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from species less than 15mm, to the second largest frog in Australia, the Giant Barred Frog (Mixophyes iteratus). The entire family are either terrestrial or aquatic frogs, with no arboreal species, and are found in Australia and New Guinea.

The Myobatrachidae family 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 female of these species will swallow her 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 metamorphisis. Another form of parental care, although not unique, is found in many species of the genus, Limnodynastes, where the male will bury itself near an egg mass, and protect the eggs.

These frogs lack adhesive toe discs found in the tree frogs. The family is broken up into three sub-families: Limnodynastinae, Myobatrachinae and Rheobatrachinae. This separation is based mainly upon their egg laying habits. Those of the sub-family Limnodynastinae lay foam nests. The female creates foam by aggitating a chemical on her skin with her hands. The foam may float on top of water, or be on land. The sub-family Rheobatrachinae contains the two species of gastric-brooding frog, and the rest are within the sub-family Myobatrachinae.

The Myobatrachids are split into three sub-families: Myobatrachinae, Limnodynastinae and Rheobatrachinae. Although most sources class the three groups as sub-families some taxonomists recognise them each as individual families.

• Limnodynastinae

• Adelotus (Ogilby, 1907)
• Heleioporus (Gray, 1841)
• Lechriodus (Boulenger, 1882)
• Limnodynastes (Fitzinger, 1843)
• Mixophyes (Günther, 1864)
• Neobatrachus (Peters, 1863)
• Notaden (Günther, 1873)
• Opisthodon Steindachner, 1867
• Philoria (Spencer, 1901)

• Myobatrachinae

• Arenophryne (Tyler, 1976)
• Assa (Tyler, 1972)
• Crinia (Tschudi, 1838)
• Geocrinia (Blake, 1973)
• Metacrinia (Parker, 1940)
• Myobatrachus (Schlegel In Gray, 1850)
• Paracrinia (Heyer and Liem, 1976)
• Pseudophryne (Fitzinger, 1843)
• Spicospina (Roberts, Horwitz, Wardell-Johnson, Maxson, and Mahony, 1997)
• Taudactylus (Straughan and Lee, 1966)
• Uperoleia (Gray, 1841)

• Rheobatrachinae

• Rheobatrachus (Liem, 1973)

• Cogger, H.G.; R.G. Zweifel, and D. Kirschner (2004). Encyclopedia of Reptiles & Amphibians Second Edition. Fog City Press. ISBN 1-877019-69-0. 

v • d • e Chordata - Amphibia - Families of Anura

Allophrynidae - Amphignathodontidae - Arthroleptidae - Ascaphidae - Bombinatoridae - Brachycephalidae - Bufonidae - Centrolenidae - Dendrobatidae - Discoglossidae - Heleophrynidae - Hemisotidae - Hylidae - Hyperoliidae - Leiopelmatidae - Leptodactylidae - Mantellidae - Megophryidae - Microhylidae - Myobatrachidae - Nasikabatrachidae - Pelobatidae - Pelodytidae - Pipidae - Ranidae - Rhacophoridae - Rhinodermatidae - Rhinophrynidae - Scaphiopodidae - Sooglossidae