Myobatrachoidea Explained

Myobatrachoidea is a superfamily of frogs. It contains two families, both of which are found in Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Some sources group these two families into a single family Myobatrachidae.^[1]

Their closest relatives are thought to be the Calyptocephalellidae of southern South America, from which they diverged during the mid-Cretaceous (about 100 million years ago). Together, they comprise the clade Australobatrachia; their common ancestor is thought to have inhabited South America, with the ancestors of Myobatrachoidea dispersing to Australasia during the Cretaceous via (then ice-free) Antarctica.^[2] Both families within Myobatrachoidea are thought to have diverged from each other during the Late Cretaceous or during the earliest Paleocene (immediately after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event).^[3]

Taxonomy

Myobatrachoidea contains the following families:

• Limnodynastidae - 44 species
• Myobatrachidae - 91 species

References

1. Web site: Myobatrachoidea Schlegel, 1850 Amphibian Species of the World . 2022-08-15 . research.amnh.org.
2. Mörs . Thomas . Reguero . Marcelo . Vasilyan . Davit . 2020-04-23 . First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia . Scientific Reports . en . 10 . 1 . 5051 . 10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 . 32327670 . 216085718 . 2045-2322. free . 7181706 .
3. Feng . Yan-Jie . Blackburn . David C. . Liang . Dan . Hillis . David M. . Wake . David B. . Cannatella . David C. . Zhang . Peng . 2017-07-18 . Phylogenomics reveals rapid, simultaneous diversification of three major clades of Gondwanan frogs at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . en . 114 . 29 . 10.1073/pnas.1704632114 . 0027-8424 . 5530686 . 28673970. free .