Cyclorana

Cyclorana
Water-holding Frog (Cyclorana platycephala)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Hylidae
Genus:	Litoria
Subgenus:	Cyclorana Steindachner, 1867
Species
13 species; see table.
The range of Cyclorana (in black).

Cyclorana is a subgenus of the frog genus Litoria in the family Hylidae (tree frogs), 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] Although classified as tree frogs, this genus is entirely terrestrial and lacks toe pads which their arboreal relatives use for climbing. They are classified as tree frogs because of their similarity with the other members of the genus Litoria in terms of skeletal structure and physical resemblance of the tadpoles.

This subgenus inhabits some of the most arid zones of Australia. Some species burrow underground and remain dormant for more than 5 years in order to survive drought conditions. They can store large amounts of water in their bladder, and form a "cocoon" around themselves to reduce loss of water. This is why they are often called "water holding frogs". These frogs 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

Binomial Name and Author	Common Name
Cyclorana alboguttata (Günther, 1867)	Striped Burrowi
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 platycephala (Günther, 1873)	Water-holding Frog,
Cyclorana vagitus Tyler, Davies & Martin, 1981	Wailing Frog
Cyclorana verrucosa (Tyler & Martin, 1977)	Rough Frog

References

1. ^ * 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]

External links

• Frost, Darrel R. 2007. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 5.1 (10 October, 2007). Litoria. Electronic Database accessible at 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 http://www.itis.gov/index.html. (Accessed: May 10, 2008).
• GBIF - Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxon Cyclorana at http://data.gbif.org/welcome.htm