Tadpoles and Frogs of Australia

MARION ANSTIS has become something of a legend among the Australian frogwatching community. Although spending most of her working life as a high-school music teacher with a passion for frogs and tadpoles from childhood, she has now metamorphosed into a frog biologist and completed her PhD in Biological Science in 2012 at Newcastle University. In 2002, following her decision to take on a book covering the entire Australian frog fauna, her research has led her to all parts of the continent from remote areas of the Kimberley in north-western Australia to Tasmania. She drove and lived in a campervan along the way, which became her mobile laboratory (complete with microscope), and has raised eggs and tadpoles into frogs to study them and confirm their identity while on the road or back at her home in Sydney. The task has been enormous and has required vast quantities of determination and dedication. Her amphibian research has been supported by grants from the CSIRO, the Australian Biological Resources Study, WWF and Newcastle University, which have made her studies possible. Her work spans many articles on tadpoles and the early development of frogs in various scientific journals from 1974 to 2017, and three other books: Tadpoles of South-eastern Australia: a guide with keys (2002), Frogs and Tadpoles of Australia (a book for children, 2008), and Frogs of Australia: Reed Concise Guide (2017), all published by Reed New Holland Publishers. With her acute eye for detail, Marion has executed all of the illustrations in this book and most of the photographs for initial publication for her PhD. This publication makes her lifetime studies available to all as an outstanding tool for identification and conservation.