Random Frog and Toad Facts

• DID YOU KNOW THAT IT CAN RAIN FROGS AND TOADS? Sometimes winds and tornadoes can pick up
these amphibians from their water hole and drop them on the unsuspecting heads of passers-by.

• DID YOU KNOW THAT TOADS WERE OFTEN CONSIDERED EVIL? Magical powers were attributed to the
toads and often showed up in fairy tales and legends? Kiss any frogs and have it turn into a prince lately?

• DID YOU KNOW THAT AFRICAN CLAWED FROGS CAN BE USED AS A HUMAN PREGNANCY TEST?
The urine of pregnant women when injected into a female African clawed frog will stimulate the frog to lay
eggs.

• DID YOU KNOW THAT THE CANE TOAD IN AUSTRALIA WAS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED TO DESTROY A
PEST NOT BECOME ONE? In 1935, the cane toad was brought from Hawaii to eat beetles that were
destroying sugar cane. The toads adapted so readily to their new environment that they overpopulated the
area. Cane toads have no natural enemies because they exude a deadly poison from their poison glands in
their skin. Snakes have been found dead with partially swallowed toads in their mouth!

• HOW BIG IS THE BIGGEST TOAD? The largest toad is found in Asia and has a 10 inch body length (that
doesn’t include the legs). This toad is Bufo asper.

• HOW BIG IS THE LARGEST FROG? The largest frog in the world is the Goliath Frog of West Africa. It can
attain a length of 300 mm (12 inches).

• HOW SMALL IS THE SMALLEST FROG? The smallest frog is the Brazilian Psyllophyrne didactyla which is
slightly less that 1 cm long.

• DID YOU KNOW THAT SPADEFOOT TOADS WILL ONLY MATE AFTER A RAGING RAINSTORM? They
will only mate if the temperature is 50 degrees or higher. So if there is no rainstorm, there will not be any
new spadefoots that year.

• DID YOU KNOW THAT THE MALE DARWIN’S FROG SWALLOWS THE EGGS? He carries the eggs 1and
hatching tadpoles in special vocal sacs for 15 -20 days until they are big enough to fend for themselves.
KINGDOM - ANIMALIA
PHYLUM - CHORDATA
SUBPHYLUM – VERTEBRATA
CLASS - AMPHIBIA

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 Amphibians
General Characteristics
1. Amphibia means “double life”
2. All under metamorphosis
3. Young are fish-like, herbivores with 2-chambered
heart
4. Adults are carnivorous, can live on land, have
lungs, 3-chambered heart
5. Cold-blooded or exothermic (poikilothermic)
6. Smooth, moist skin
7. Webbed feet without claws (most)
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 Three Orders of Amphibia
Gymnophiona
meaning: gymnos = naked, opineos = of a snake aka: Apoda
Example: Caecilians

Urodela (aka: Caudata)

meaning: oura = tail, delos = evident
Example: Salamanders

Salientia (aka: Anura)

meaning: an = without, oura = tail
Example: Frogs and Toads

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 Order Gymnophiona (Apoda)
Caecilians
• 160 species
• Only found in tropics
• Look like large worms
• Small eyes or totally blind
• Hearing is not good - rely on tentacles
(located between eye and nostril)
• Excellent sense of smell
• Live in burrows (seldom seen by humans)
• Fertilization is internal
• Oviparous - lay eggs in puddles

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Caecilian

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Caecilian

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 Order Caudata (Urodela)
Salamanders and Newts
• 360 species
• Long slender body with tail
• Aposematic (warning) coloration
• deaf - feel vibration on ground
• Temperate climates, tropics of Central and
South America
• Often confused with lizards… they are not lizards
because they undergo metamorphosis, have no scales,
no claws, and four toes on foot
• American Hellbender – largest in North
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Hellbender

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 Caudata
Common Names
• Salamander – any type
– salamander means ‘fire animal” - because men
brought wood into house and stacked it near fire;
salamanders crawled out from under the bark
– Axoltol – sexually mature, but still has some larval
characteristics (gills)

• Newt:
– Eft - Juvenile term; the juvenile is in a land body
form and uses skin for respiration
– Newt - adult term; the adult is in water body form
– Some Red eft are poisonous (the adult loses the
poisonous skin) Salamander
– Newts live in grassy or weedy ponds
– Adults are olive green with a yellow belly
– Newts are easier to hold than other salamanders
because their skin is rougher and less moist

Red Eft 10
Newt
 Caudata
Breeding Habits
Oviparous – egg laying
Internal fertilization – male deposits packet
of sperm (spermatophore), females body
picks it up in her cloaca
Eggs laid in water, covered by coat of jelly-
like material to prevent drying out
Direct development – bypassed larval stage
(strictly for land salamanders)
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 Caudata
Development of Egg
1. Cleavage of zygote (1 fertilized cell, into 2 cells, then 4, 8, etc…)
2. Blastula (hollow ball of cells)
3. Blastopore (hole in blastula becomes anus)… so they are deuterostomes
4. Gastrula – double layered sac
5. Paedomorphosis – may retain larval form (gills) when sexually mature

Ex: Mudpuppy (genus Necturus)

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 Order Anura (Salientia)
Frogs and Toads
3,450 species!
Found in most habitats
except polar and
subarctic zones

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FROG TOAD
 Toads
• Dry skin
• Nocturnal
• Poison glands in skin (not effective on snakes)
• No teeth
• Tadpoles (called polliwogs) are usually black

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 Frogs
Hibernation – spend cold months buried in mud
below the frost line, live off of stored fat,
breathe through skin
Estivation – during high heat – bury in mud or
deep water

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 Order Anura Divisions
Divided into 21 families
• Ranidae – the most common (frogs)
• Hylidae (tree frogs)
• Bufonidae (true toads)
• Largest – West African Toad ~30cm long, eats
rats
• Smallest – Psyllophyrne <1cm long
• Largest American frog – Bullfrog
Scientific name: Rana catesbelana

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 Anura
Skin
• Thin, smooth, moist (frog)
• Used in respiration
• Contains three different types of
chromatophores (pigment cells)
• Contains mucus glands to prevent dryness
• Contains chemical and tactile receptors

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 Anura
Sensory
• External Nares – nostrils
– Olfactory membrane lining in nasal cavity
• Tympanum – external eardrum
– transmits vibrations
• Eustachian tube – connects pharynx to middle ear
• Eyes
– dominant sense
– have color vision, moving upper and lower lids
– Protective covering over eye for underwater vision (called the
nictitating membrane)
• Tongue
– taste buds on tongue

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 Anura
Skeleton
• Vertebrae (3 types)
– Cervical – neck
– Sacral – help support hind legs
– Urostyle – fused coccyx (triangular bone at the bas
of the spinal column “tailbone”)
• Skull – includes brain case, face, and jaw
• Pectoral girdle – front legs, breast bone, collar
bone, shoulder blades
• Pelvic girdle – hip bones (fused), hind legs
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 Anura
Nervous System
• More highly developed than fish
• Brain
– Forebrain (olfactory, cerebrum)
• Olfactory = smell
• Cerebrum = of little importance to frogs and toads
– Midbrain (optic lobes)
• Optic lobes = vision and complex activities
– Hindbrain (cerebellum, medulla)
• Cerebellum = equilibrium and balance
• Medulla oblongata = auditory reflexes, respiratory, swallowing,
vasomotor control (nerves and muscles that cause the blood vessels
to constrict or dilate)

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 Anura
Digestive System
1. carnivorous (insects, spiders, worms, slugs, etc…)
2. Tongue is sticky
3. Swallows prey whole
4. Teeth in upper jaw only
Vomerine = 2 large teeth
Maxillary = small, on rim of upper jaw
5. Gullet (opening to esophagus)
6. Esophagus
7. Stomach (digestion begins)
8. Pylorus (valve between stomach and intestine to prevent early passage of food out of stomach)
9. Intestine (small)
Duodenum (pancreas and bile secrete into this)
Ileum (coiled portion)
Mesentery (holds intestine in place)
10. Colon (large intestine) stores undigested food, absorbs water
11. Cloaca – bottom portion of colon, receives reproductive products, kidney products, can take in water to
absorb from environment

• Accessory organs
– Liver – stores sugar in the form of glycogen; produces bile which is stored in the gall bladder
– Pancreas – makes digestive enzymes

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 Anura
Excretory System
• Kidney – excrete nitrogenous waste; maintain
salt and water balance
• Carbon Dioxide – excreted through skin
• Urine from kidneys stored in urinary bladder

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 Anura
Respiratory System
• 3 ways to obtain oxygen
– Skin (cutaneous breathing) – at rest
– Mouth (buccal breathing) – when active
– Lungs (pulmonary breathing) – when active

• Pathway of air
– Nares, pharynx, glottis (opening to trachea), trachea,
bronchi, alveoli (air sacs)
– Male vocal cords – better developed, found in larynx, used
to attract females
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 Anura
Circulatory System
• Adult has a three chambered heart
2 atria
1 ventricle

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 Anura
Reproductive System
• Female
– Ovary next to kidney
– Coiled oviduct (transport egg from ovary to cloaca)
– Ovisac – thin walled sac that stores eggs
– Eggs have a jelly-like coating and leave body through cloaca
• Male
– Oval testes on anterior ventral side of kidney
– Sperm ducts – attach testes to kidney
• Breeding Habits
– Fertilization is external
– Male clamps onto females body from behind with forearms (called
amplexus)
– Male releases sperm as female releases eggs

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