Ranoidea platycephala digs backwards into clay soil using hardened tubercles on the hind feet. Before dormancy it fills the bladder and tissues with water, then repeatedly sheds the outermost skin layers without discarding them. The layers accumulate into a translucent cocoon around the body, sealed except at the nostrils, which cuts evaporative loss dramatically.
In that state metabolism drops steeply and the frog can persist through a dry period lasting more than a year, and reportedly several years in the driest country. When enough rain falls to soak down to the burrow, the frog breaks the cocoon, eats it, digs to the surface and breeds in the temporary claypan within a few days. Tadpoles develop fast, before the water goes.
Aboriginal peoples in central Australia are recorded as digging up these frogs and squeezing them for drinking water in emergencies. The widely repeated claim that this made the species a reliable outback water source overstates it: locating a buried frog requires precise knowledge of the ground, and the volume from one animal is small.