Due to its unusual morphology, the features of this creature are thought to originate with old frog lineages from the early Tertiary or late Mesozoic eras.

[3] The turtle frog can be found in between Geraldton and Fitzgerald River in the Perth region, in Southwestern Australia.

They do not need to live near standing pools of water, as they undergo the entire metamorphosis stage within their eggs.

This means that they leave their eggs fully formed, skipping the tadpole stage (an unusual life cycle shared by a few other frog genera, e.g. Eleutherodactylus, Arenophryne, and other members its genus).

This allows it to get plentiful food, with an average frog to be able to eat approximately 400 termites in a single meal.

[3] The albumins of frogs in the Arenophryne and Myobatrachus genera have unique physical traits, suggesting that they share an evolutionary ancestor.