Myobatrachoidea

{{Short description|Superfamily of frogs}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|55|0|Early Eocene to present}}

| image = Giant Banjo Frog (Limnodynastes interioris) photographed in Wagga Wagga, NSW.jpg

| image_caption = Limnodynastes interioris

| taxon = Myobatrachoidea

| authority = Schlegel, 1850

| subdivision_ranks = Families

| subdivision = * Limnodynastidae

• Myobatrachidae

}}

Myobatrachoidea is a superfamily of frogs. It contains two families, both of which are found in Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Some sources group these two families into a single family Myobatrachidae.{{Cite web |title=Myobatrachoidea Schlegel, 1850 {{!}} Amphibian Species of the World |url=https://amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org/Amphibia/Anura/Myobatrachoidea |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=research.amnh.org}}

Their closest relatives are thought to be the Calyptocephalellidae of southern South America, from which they diverged during the mid-Cretaceous (about 100 million years ago). Together, they comprise the clade Australobatrachia; their common ancestor is thought to have inhabited South America, with the ancestors of Myobatrachoidea dispersing to Australasia during the Cretaceous via (then ice-free) Antarctica.{{Cite journal |last1=Mörs |first1=Thomas |last2=Reguero |first2=Marcelo |last3=Vasilyan |first3=Davit |date=2020-04-23 |title=First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61973-5 |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=5051 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 |pmid=32327670 |s2cid=216085718 |issn=2045-2322|doi-access=free |pmc=7181706 }} Both families within Myobatrachoidea are thought to have diverged from each other during the Late Cretaceous or during the earliest Paleocene (immediately after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event).{{Cite journal |last1=Feng |first1=Yan-Jie |last2=Blackburn |first2=David C. |last3=Liang |first3=Dan |last4=Hillis |first4=David M. |last5=Wake |first5=David B. |last6=Cannatella |first6=David C. |last7=Zhang |first7=Peng |date=2017-07-18 |title=Phylogenomics reveals rapid, simultaneous diversification of three major clades of Gondwanan frogs at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=114 |issue=29 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1704632114 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=5530686 |pmid=28673970|doi-access=free }} The earliest fossils of this group are of Platypectrum casca from the Early Eocene.{{Cite journal |last=Farman |first=roy M. |last2=Archer |first2=Michael |last3=Hand |first3=Suzanne J. |title=Early Eocene pelodryadid from the Tingamarra Local Fauna, Murgon, southeastern Queensland, Australia, and a new fossil calibration for molecular phylogenies of frogs |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2025.2477815#d1e174 |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=0 |issue=0 |pages=e2477815 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2025.2477815 |issn=0272-4634 |doi-access=free}}