Gastric Brooding Frogs

Rheobatrachus, whose members are known as the gastric-brooding frogs or platypus frogs, is a genus of extinct ground-dwelling frogs native to Queensland, a state in eastern Australia. The genus consists of only two species, the southern and northern gastric-brooding frogs, both of which became extinct in the mid-1980s. The southern gastric brooding frog was last seen in 1983 and was declared extinct in 2006. The northern gastric brooding frog was last seen in 1987 and was declared extinct in 2015. The genus is unique because it contains the only two known frog species that incubated the prejuvenile stages of their offspring in the stomach of the mother.

The combined ranges of the gastric-brooding frogs comprised less than 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi). Both species were associated with creek systems in rainforests at elevations of between 350 and 1,400 metres (1,150 and 4,590 ft). The causes of the gastric-brooding frogs' extinction are not clearly understood, but habitat loss and degradation, pollution, and some diseases may have contributed.