Guest Author - Peyton Creadick
Welcome to article 2 of Peyton Creadick’s Extinct Reptiles and Amphibians Series. This week, we’ll be taking a look at the three extinct frog species from Australia. Often known for its unusual animals, Australia’s extinct frogs live up to the country’s reputation! Sit back and enjoy a brief look into these amazing frogs….
You may be familiar with the Pipa Pipa frog (native to South America) and its reputation for brooding eggs on (or in, depending upon your perspective) the back of the female. Well, the Gastric Brooding frog (Northern and Southern) was even more inventive!
Rheobatrachus Silus also known as the Southern Gastric-Brooding Frog and the Platypus Frog and Rheobatrachus vitellinus also known as the Northern Gastric-Brooding Frog, the Stream Frog, and the Northern Platypus Frog are two species that received their most common name (gastric brooding frog) for the way the eggs were swallowed and brooded inside the female. The froglets were regurgitated when they were ready. REGURGITATED? No, I’m not kidding. Are they a little too gruesome for you? Do they strike you as more gruesome than the Pipa Pipa Frog? Not me!
The Southern Gastric-Brooding Frog reached lengths of approximately 50mm and could be found in wet forests around rocky mountain streams. The frogs were black to olive brown on their backs with darker blotching and a dark streak from the eye to the base of the arm. Their bellies were white, but their limbs bore patterns of barring above and yellow coloration beneath. Their webbed toes were pale with brown flecks, and the skin had a fine granular texture. Its call is difficult to describe. It was said to have been similar to “eehm…eeehm” with an upward inflection.
Disease and poor management (declining quality of water) is attributed to the demise of these creative frogs. They can be distinguished from their Northern counterparts by their color patterns, mottled webbings, and distribution. It’s not known if any of these frogs remain in the wild.
Our next frog is the counterpart to the species we just visited. It’s called the the Northern Gastric-Brooding Frog. It reached lengths of 55mm (males) to 80mm (females) and could be found in rainforests near fast-flowing rocky creeks. It was often found hiding under the rocks in these creeks. It was a pale brown frog with darker blotches, but its limbs and lower abdomen were bright yellow. The rest of the belly was white to brown. Its call was loud and was made up of several staccato notes.
Disease is credited with the demise of this frog. It has not been seen in the wild since 1985!
Now that you’ve gotten a look at two of the three extinct Australian frog species, the third is a bit less inventive but no less interesting! It was called Taudactylus diurus also known as the Southern Day Frog and the Mount Glorious Torrent Frog. The Southern Day Frog. Its claim to fame was its day-time activity (most frogs are nocturnal) and the umbrella shape of the tadpoles. Its breeding practices were pretty run of the mill, unlike our other two extinct Australian frogs. Its call was a soft “cluck cluck” repeated in short bursts.
This frog is the smallest of the three. It reached approximately 30mm and was of a gray to brown color on its back with darker mottling. It had a pale bar between the eyes and a dark brown bar behind it. It had a pale strip between its eye and its arms with an H-shaped pattern on its back. It’s belly was cream or bluish in color, and its limbs had a dark pattern of banding. The toes were not webbed, unlike the Northern and Southern Gastric-Brooding Frogs.
The Southern Day Frog was found in tall open forests and mountainous rainforests around tall open streams. It often used these streams for protection when it was startled and could cling beneath rocks in fast moving water.
Like the Southern Gastric-Brooding Frog, disease and poor water quality are credited with the demise of this little frog.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into these three interesting frogs. I’ve included links to pictures of these beautiful creatures. Hopefully, one day, we will hear that some of them still exist in the wild. Every time a previously thought to be extinct species is found, even in small numbers, it creates more hope that others still exist.
