I’m starting to read “Field guide to frogs of Australia” by Tyler and Knight.

The first surprise is the number of frog species in Australia.

There are about 250 marsupial species in Australia.
There are about 250 frog species in Australia.

The authors estimate 257 frog species so far. The number is a bit uncertain because there are frog species that haven’t yet been described in the zoological literature, because several species may or may not be extinct, and because there are almost certainly new species that haven’t been found yet.

The second surprise is that the Cane Toad is not Bufo marinus, the name has now been changed to Rhinella marina.
Dang, that’s the only scientific name for a frog species that I know.

The weirdest Australian frog is the Turtle Frog Myobatrachus gouldii of SW Western Australia. People regularly ring up the Australian Museum in Perth reporting shell-less baby turtles. They’re not turtles, just frogs that look like turtles.

It’s not just their looks that makes them strange. They don’t have tadpoles. The frog buries its large eggs in wet soil up to 1.5 metres deep (just like turtles) and the embryo development is completely within those shells (just like turtles). They hatch as fully formed frogs.

It’s an interesting animal, ta.

Bubblecar said:

It’s an interesting animal, ta.

There are other frogs with narrow heads, but no other one that I know of with both a narrow head and a blunt snout.
Unlike all other frogs, it actually seems to have a neck.

The question remains as to whether the turtle frog is a case of convergent evolution, frogs taking over an ecological niche that is otherwise held by turtles. Or whether it’s something of a living fossil, a reminder of the time when anapsid reptiles evolved from amphibians.

mollwollfumble said:

Bubblecar said:

It’s an interesting animal, ta.

There are other frogs with narrow heads, but no other one that I know of with both a narrow head and a blunt snout.
Unlike all other frogs, it actually seems to have a neck.

The question remains as to whether the turtle frog is a case of convergent evolution, frogs taking over an ecological niche that is otherwise held by turtles. Or whether it’s something of a living fossil, a reminder of the time when anapsid reptiles evolved from amphibians.

The frog has evolved to live in seasonally wet and dry environments. Turtles prefer wetter conditions.

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

Bubblecar said:

It’s an interesting animal, ta.

There are other frogs with narrow heads, but no other one that I know of with both a narrow head and a blunt snout.
Unlike all other frogs, it actually seems to have a neck.

The question remains as to whether the turtle frog is a case of convergent evolution, frogs taking over an ecological niche that is otherwise held by turtles. Or whether it’s something of a living fossil, a reminder of the time when anapsid reptiles evolved from amphibians.

The frog has evolved to live in seasonally wet and dry environments. Turtles prefer wetter conditions.

Does he say to others frogs “Do you even lift bro ?”