Data from: Populating a continent: Phylogenomics reveal the timing of Australian frog diversification

The Australian continent’s size and isolation make it an ideal place for
studying the accumulation and evolution of biodiversity. Long separated
from the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, most of Australia’s plants and
animals are unique and endemic, including the continent’s frogs.
Australian frogs comprise a remarkable ecological and morphological
diversity categorized into a small number of distantly related radiations.
We present a phylogenomic hypothesis based on an exon-capture dataset that
spans the main clades of Australian myobatrachoid, pelodryadid hyloid, and
microhylid frogs. Our time-calibrated phylogenomic-scale phylogeny
identifies great disparity in the relative ages of these groups which vary
from Gondwanan relics to recent immigrants from Asia and include arguably
the continent’s oldest living vertebrate radiation. This age
stratification provides insight into the colonization of⁠, and
diversification on, the Australian continent through deep time, during
periods of dramatic climatic and community changes. Contemporary
Australian frog diversity highlights the adaptive capacity of anurans,
particularly in response to heat and aridity, and explains why they are
one of the continent’s most visible faunas.