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Brevicipitidae

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Also known as rain frogs, brevicipitids

The Brevicipitidae or rain frogs are a small family of frogs found in eastern and southern Africa. As of 2025, it contains 38 species in 5 genera. Formerly included as subfamily in Microhylidae (narrow-mouth frogs), phylogenetic research has indicated the brevicipitine frogs should be considered as a family, with Hemisotidae (shovelnose frogs) as the most closely related sister taxon.

Species

FAMILY

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. ClassAmphibia
  4. OrderAnura
  5. FamilyBrevicipitidae
Habitatfreshwater
Observations recorded5,970

via GBIF

Wikidata facts

Instance of
taxon
Parent taxon
Neobatrachia
Image
Callulina dawida.jpg
Show 4 more facts
Commons category
Brevicipitidae
taxon rank
family
taxon name
Brevicipitidae
topic's main category
Category:Brevicipitidae
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~2 min read

Encyclopedic overview

2 sections
Contents
  • Genera
  • References

The Brevicipitidae or rain frogs are a small family of frogs found in eastern and southern Africa. As of 2025, it contains 38 species in 5 genera. Formerly included as subfamily in Microhylidae (narrow-mouth frogs), phylogenetic research has indicated the brevicipitine frogs should be considered as a family, with Hemisotidae (shovelnose frogs) as the most closely related sister taxon.

Most adult brevicipitine frogs are not easily seen as they spend extended periods of time in soil or leaf litter. However, some species might be partly arboreal at times. Many species show strong sexual size dimorphism, with females being much larger than males.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Brevicipitidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.