| Cyclorana | |
|---|---|
| 👁 Image | |
| Water-holding frog (Cyclorana platycephala) | |
| Scientific classification 👁 Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Pelodryadidae |
| Genus: | Steindachner, 1867 |
| Species | |
|
13 species; see table | |
| 👁 Image | |
| The range of Cyclorana (in black) | |
Cyclorana is a genus of frogs in the family Pelodryadidae, whose members are found in most of Australia. It was formerly considered a separate genus, but reclassified following a major revision by Frost et al. in 2006[1], before being reclassified as a separate genus again in 2025[2]. Although classified as Australo-Papuan tree frogs, Cyclorana is entirely terrestrial and lacks toe pads, which their arboreal relatives use for climbing.
Cyclorana inhabits some of the most arid zones of Australia. Some species burrow underground and remain dormant for more than 5 years to survive drought conditions. They can store large amounts of water in their bladders, and form a "cocoon" around themselves to reduce loss of water, so are often called "water-holding frogs". They only return to the surface to breed and eat, and normally only after heavy summer rains. Eggs are normally laid in temporary water, and tadpoles develop quickly to metamorphose before the water completely evaporates.
Species
[edit]| Binomial name and author | Common name |
|---|---|
| Cyclorana alboguttata (Günther, 1867) | Striped burrowing frog |
| Cyclorana australis (Gray, 1842) | Giant frog |
| Cyclorana brevipes (Peters, 1871) | Short-footed frog |
| Cyclorana cryptotis Tyler & Martin, 1977 | Hidden-ear frog |
| Cyclorana cultripes Parker, 1940 | Knife-footed frog |
| Cyclorana longipes Tyler & Martin, 1977 | Long-footed frog |
| Cyclorana maculosa Tyler & Martin, 1977 | Daly Waters frog |
| Cyclorana maini Tyler & Martin, 1977 | Main's frog |
| Cyclorana manya Van Beurden & McDonald, 1980 | Small frog |
| Cyclorana novaehollandiae Steindachner, 1867 | New Holland frog |
| Cyclorana occidentalis Anstis, Price, Roberts, Catalano, Hines, Doughty, and Donnellan, 2016 | Water-holding frog |
| Cyclorana platycephala (Günther, 1873) | Water-holding frog |
| Cyclorana vagitus Tyler, Davies & Martin, 1981 | Wailing frog |
| Cyclorana verrucosa Tyler & Martin, 1977 | Rough frog |
References
[edit]- ^ Darrel R. Frost, Taran Grant, Julia´ N Faivovich, Raoul H. Bain, Alexander Haas, Ce´ Lio F.B. Haddad, Rafael O. De Sa´ , Alan Channing, Mark Wilkinson, Stephen C. Donnellan, Christopher J. Raxworthy, Jonathan A. Campbell, Boris L. Blotto, Paul Moler, Robert C. Drewes, Ronald A. Nussbaum, John D. Lynch, David M. Green, And Ward C. Wheeler, 2006, The Amphibian Tree of Life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 297: 362 [1]
- ^ Donnellan, Stephen C.; Mahony, Michael J.; Esquerré, Damien; Brennan, Ian G.; Price, Luke C.; Lemmon, Alan; Moriarty Lemmon, Emily; Günther, Rainer; Monis, Paul; Bertozzi, Terry; Keogh, J. Scott; Shea, Glenn M.; Richards, Stephen J. (2025-06-19). "Phylogenomics informs a generic revision of the Australo-Paupuan treefrogs (Anura: Pelodryadidae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 204 (2). Oxford Academic: 1–80. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf015. Retrieved 2026-04-01.
External links
[edit]- Frost, Darrel R. 2007. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 5.1 (10 October 2007). Litoria. Electronic Database accessible at https://web.archive.org/web/20071024033938/http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.php. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. (Accessed: May 10, 2008).
- AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. 2008. Berkeley, California: Cyclorana. AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/. (Accessed: May 10, 2008).
- eol - Encyclopedia of Life taxon Cyclorana at http://www.eol.org.
- ITIS - Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database Taxon Cyclorana at https://web.archive.org/web/20160606043808/http://www.itis.gov/index.html. (Accessed: May 10, 2008).
- GBIF - Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxon Cyclorana at https://web.archive.org/web/20080501142231/http://data.gbif.org/welcome.htm
