The contemporary biogeography of European amphibians has been hypothesized to have arisen from range expansion and recolonization of the northern part of the continent from southern late Pleistocene refugia, such that northern species generally possess large ranges, while southerly species are mostly small-ranged. Our aim is to test the hypothesis that these patterns are likely to be underpinned by biological traits associated with dispersal ability by means of analyses of data for anurans and urodeles, the two main groups of European amphibians.