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. Notaden are also burrowers, but have extremely poorly ossified skulls, are mostly brightly colored, and secrete a white sticky skin toxin.