This group is found in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. A diverse group of frogs, ranging from 35 to 115 mm in snout-vent length.
Many species are burrowers.
Most genera have vertical pupils. Breeding males of Limnodynastes beat the egg mass into a foam. In Adelotus the males are large than females, and have a pair of sharp tusks at the tip of the lower jaw. Philoria lay direct-developing eggs in moist tunnels of soil or moss. Some species of Neobatrachus are almost identical to Scaphiopus of North America, both in appearance and in their fossorial habits.