A fossil frog from Queensland is rewriting the evolutionary history of Australia’s amphibians—pushing their lineage back by over 30 million years and challenging long-held scientific assumptions.
Key Points at a Glance
- New species Litoria tylerantiqua is the oldest known Australian tree frog, dating back 55 million years.
- Fossil evidence suggests Australian and South American tree frogs diverged far earlier than previously thought.
- The find challenges molecular clock estimates and strengthens the role of the fossil record in evolutionary research.
- Advanced CT scans enabled 3D skeletal reconstruction without damaging rare specimens.
- The study may guide conservation strategies for today’s endangered frogs.
Australia’s evolutionary story of frogs just leapt back another 30 million years. A team of palaeontologists from the University of New South Wales has identified a new prehistoric tree frog species, Litoria tylerantiqua, whose fossilized bones date back approximately 55 million years—making it the oldest known tree frog on the continent.
Discovered in Murgon, Queensland—on the traditional lands of the Waka Waka people—the tiny fossil rewrites the timeline for frog evolution in Australia and challenges long-standing scientific models. Until now, it was believed that tree frogs in Australia diverged from their South American relatives around 33 million years ago. But this ancient frog suggests the split happened much earlier, during a time when Australia, Antarctica, and South America were still part of the Gondwanan supercontinent.
“This pushes the divergence of Australian and South American tree frogs back by at least 22 million years,” says Dr. Roy Farman, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology. “Fossils like this remind us that the molecular clock doesn’t always tick at the same speed—and we need to listen to the rocks as much as the genes.”
Named in honour of the late herpetologist Michael Tyler, Litoria tylerantiqua is a close relative of modern Australian pelodryadid frogs. Its discovery extends the known fossil record of this frog family by tens of millions of years, suggesting these adaptable amphibians were already thriving in the lush, forested corridors that once linked Australia with South America via Antarctica.
To confirm the frog’s identity, researchers used high-resolution CT scans on preserved museum specimens to digitally reconstruct the frogs’ skeletons in 3D. This innovative technique—geometric morphometrics—enabled precise comparisons between the fossil’s pelvic bone (ilium) and those of modern species, all without damaging rare or delicate samples.
“We were facing a unique challenge,” Farman explains. “Most of the relevant bones were locked inside ‘pickled’ museum specimens, preserved for molecular studies. CT imaging let us peer inside and compare fossil and modern anatomy in unprecedented detail.”
This is only the second time the technique has been used on fossil frogs, and the first time it’s revealed a new species of such evolutionary importance.
But the story doesn’t end in the past. The research team believes ancient frog fossils like Litoria tylerantiqua may also offer lessons for the future. Frogs are among the most threatened animals on Earth, facing extinction from habitat loss, disease, and climate change.
“Frogs like the southern corroboree frog are being pushed to the brink by environmental change,” says Farman. “Yet the fossil record shows their ancestors have survived cataclysms before—including the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs.”
Understanding how ancient frogs adapted to new environments could inform conservation strategies today. If closely related fossil species once thrived in different habitats, translocating modern endangered frogs to similar environments might offer them a better chance of survival.
Litoria tylerantiqua joins Platyplectrum casca as the oldest known frogs in Australia, both hailing from the same fossil-rich site. Their presence underscores not just the resilience of frogs through deep time, but the power of fossils to challenge our understanding of evolutionary history.
As palaeontology meets cutting-edge imaging and molecular science, the story of Earth’s tiniest survivors is being told with greater clarity than ever before—and it turns out, they’ve been hopping through time much longer than we thought.
Source: University of New South Wales
