Pelodryadidae

Pelodryadidae
Orange-thighed frog
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Pelodryadidae Günther, 1858
Genera
See text

Pelodryadidae is a family of frogs. They are named Australian treefrogs in English. They live in Australia and New Guinea. Human beings also brought them to New Caledonia, Guam, New Zealand, and Vanuatu. Some scientists say these frogs should be called a subgroup inside the group Hylidae. They call this family Pelodryadinae.

Most of the frogs in Pelodryadidae live in trees but some do not.

Scienitsts think of Pelodryadidae as a sister group to the leaf frogs (Phyllomedusidae). Those frogs live in trees and live in tropical places. Both families of frogs came from the same ancestor frog. Scientists think this frog lived during the early Cenozoic in South America. The two groups of frogs would have become different from each other during the Eocene. The ancestors of the Pelodryadidae frogs probably went to Australasia by going to Antarctica first. At the time, Antarctica was further north and not frozen, so frogs could live there. The clade comprising both families is sister to the Hylidae. They became different from the frogs in Hylidae during in the early Paleogene.

Taxonomy

The family has 215 species in three genuses:

• Subfamily Litoriinae
  • Litoria (93 species)
• Subfamily Pelodryadinae
  • Nyctimystes (42 species)
  • Ranoidea (73 species)
• Incertae sedis
  • "Litoria" castanea (Steindachner, 1867)
  • "Litoria" jeudii (Werner, 1901)
  • "Litoria" louisiadensis (Tyler, 1968)
  • "Litoria" multicolor Günther, 2004
  • "Litoria" obtusirostris Meyer, 1875
  • "Litoria" richardsi Dennis and Cunningham, 2006
  • "Litoria" vagabunda (Peters and Doria, 1878)