Sometimes the mantelline ranids are included in Rhacophoridae. In general rhacophorids are much larger than hyperoliids, some up to 12 cm. These frogs are mostly arboreal, with flattened bodies.
Many species have broad, flat, relatively bony skulls.
In many species the eggs are laid in arboreal foam nests, and the newly hatched tadpoles fall into water below to complete development. Some species have direct development. Rhacophorus nigropalmatus is known to be a glider, using its heavily webbed hands and feet to control its descent. If at some later time the mantellines are demonstrated to be not nested within Rhacophoridae, the taxon as we have defined it will still be monophyletic, but it will not include mantellines. Two of these are the fusion of the carpals and fusion of the tarsals.