Limnodynastidae Lynch, 1969

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Superfamily: Myobatrachoidea > Family: Limnodynastidae
46 species

Limnodynastini Lynch, 1969, Final PhD Exam, Program: unpaged; Lynch, 1971, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 53: 83. Type genus: Limnodynastes Fitzinger, 1843.

Limnodynastinae — Lynch, 1971, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 53: 83; Heyer and Liem, 1976, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 233: 5; Laurent, 1980 "1979", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 104: 417; Laurent, 1986, in Grassé and Delsol (eds.), Traite de Zool., 14: 676.

Heleioporidae Bauer, 1987, Proc. 4th Ord. Gen. Meeting Soc. Eur. Herpetol. Nijmegen: 52. Type genus: Heleioporus Gray, 1841. 

Limnodynastidae — Zug, Vitt, and Caldwell, 2001, Herpetology, Ed. 2: 411. Duellman in Halliday and Adler, 2002, New Encyclop. Rept. Amph.: 84; Davies, 2003, in Duellman (ed.), Grzimek's Animal Life Enclop., 6(Amph.): 139.

Heleioporini — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 201. Tribe.

Limnodynastini — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 201. Tribe. 

Limnodynastina — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 201. Subtribe. 

Neobatrachina Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 202. Type genus: Neobatrachus Peters, 1863. Subtribe. 

Platyplectrina Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 202. Type genus: Platyplectrum Günther, 1863. Subtribe. 

Notadenini Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 202. Type genus: Notaden Günther, 1873. Tribe. 

Common Names

Australian Ground Frogs (Halliday and Adler, 2002, New Encyclop. Rept. Amph.: 84; Davies, 2003, in Duellman (ed.), Grzimek's Animal Life Enclop., 6(Amph.): 139).

Distribution

Australia and New Guinea, including Aru Islands.

Comment

Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297, reviewed the taxonomic literature and placed Limnodynastidae as the sister taxon of Myobatrachidae. See Roberts and Watson, 1993, in Glasby et al. (eds.), Fauna Aust., 2A(Amph. Rept.): 35–40, and comment under Myobatrachidae for further access to literature and discussion of taxonomic history. Anstis, 2002, Tadpoles Southeast. Aust., provided keys to tadpoles for the species of southeastern Australia. Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in Hedges and Kumar (eds.), Timetree of Life: 357–364, considered this taxon a distinct family based on the age of its divergence from Myobatrachidae, but differed in the generic constitution (placement of Mixophyes). Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, confirmed the sister-taxon relationship of Limnodynastidae and Myobatrachidae and provided a tree of their molecular exemplars, but retained the older taxonomy of considering them subfamilies of a larger Myobatrachidae. Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148: 39–55, briefly reviewed the taxonomic history of this taxon and regarded it as a subfamily of Myobatrachidae. Vitt and Caldwell, 2014, Herpetology, 4th Ed., provided a summary of life history, diagnosis, and taxonomy. Elias-Costa, Araujo-Vieira, and Faivovich, 2021, Cladistics, 37: 498–517, discussed the evolution of submandibular musculature optimized on the tree of Jetz and Pyron, 2018, Nature Ecol. & Evol., 2: 850–858, which provided morphological synapomorphies of this taxon. Cogger, 2018, Rept. Amph. Australia, 7th ed.: 37–69, provided accounts and distribution maps for the Australian species. 

Contained taxa (46 sp.):

Adelotus Ogilby, 1907 (1 sp.)
Heleioporus Gray, 1841 (6 sp.)
Limnodynastes Fitzinger, 1843 (13 sp.)
Neobatrachus Peters, 1863 (9 sp.)
Notaden Günther, 1873 (4 sp.)
Philoria Spencer, 1901 (7 sp.)
Platyplectrum Günther, 1863 (6 sp.)

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