Frogs
Prehistoric Frogs
• Did you know amphibians
have been around for...
an estimated 350 million
years. The earliest known
frog appeared about 190
million years ago, during
what is known as the late
Jurassic period.
Amphibians
• Frogs are amphibians,
animals that spend part
of their lives under
water and the
remainder on land
• They have long
powerful back legs
that they use for
jumping.
• They have short
backbones.
All the Better to See You With!
• Eyes
Frogs have keen
eyesight to locate
prey.
They see colors and in
dim light.
Their bulging eyes see
in all direction
• Frogs have a reputation
for leaping that is well
deserved. Launched by
their long legs, many
frogs can leap up to
twenty times their body
length. (That would be
about a 100-foot jump
for you or me!) The
longest frog jump on
record was made by a
frog named Santjie at a
frog derby held in South
Africa. Santjie bested
the competition with a
jump of 33 feet 5.5
inches
• Most frogs
have teeth
(in the upper
jaws only)
but toads do
not have any
teeth.
Life Cycle
• Like all amphibians,
frogs spend their lives
near water because
they must return to the
water to lay their eggs
Frog Eggs
• Frog eggs are laid in
the water.
• After about 10
days a tadpole
wriggles out of Tadpoles
each egg. At
first the tadpole
breathes and
moves like a
fish, using its
gills and long
tail.
• After 5 weeks, they
lose their tail, and they
grow lungs that they
use to breathe. It has
teeth that lets it eat
plants and it can also
eat insects.
• It takes three years for
the frog to go through
its life cycle .
• In harsh climates, frogs
bury themselves in sand
and mud and hibernate
(sleep very deeply)
through the cold winter.
• When temperatures drop,
some frogs dig burrows
underground or in the mud at
the bottom of ponds. They
hibernate in these burrows
until spring, perfectly still and
scarcely breathing. Wood
frogs can live north of the
Arctic Circle, surviving for
weeks in a frozen limbo
state. This frog uses glucose
in its blood as a kind of
antifreeze that concentrates
in its vital organs, protecting
them from damage while the
rest of the body freezes
solid.
• Frogs can be found on every
continent except Antarctica.
• Though they thrive in warm,
moist tropical climates, frogs
also live in deserts and high
on 15,000 foot mountain
slopes. The Australian water-
holding frog is a desert
dweller that can wait up to
seven years for rain. It
burrows underground and
surrounds itself in a
transparent cocoon made of
its own shed skin.
• Like all amphibians,
frogs are cold-
blooded, meaning
that their body
temperatures
change with the
temperature of their
surroundings.
Protection
• Some frogs use
camouflage to avoid
predators. The
patterns and colors
of a frog's skin, and
sometimes the
shape of its body,
can help it blend into
its surroundings.
Diet
• Frogs eat any animal
they can capture and
swallow, including
worms, insects,
crustaceans, other
frogs, snakes, and
even small mammals
and birds.
• They have webbed
feet for swimming.
• They have suction
disks on their feet to
help them climb
Predators
• The primary predators of
frogs are fish, although a
variety of birds, mammals,
snakes, crustaceans, and
insects prey on these frogs
and their tadpoles.
• Humans hunt these frogs
for their meat (frog legs).
• Bullfrogs also prey upon
each other.
Did You Know?????
• A frog's skin is not
waterproof! In fact, frogs
can absorb both oxygen
and water through their
skin. This quality makes
frogs particularly
vulnerable to pollutants in
the air or water - they
suffer from pollution even
when they don't eat or
drink it through their
mouth.
Did You Know that Frogs Fly?
• Well, it's not exactly
flying, but certain tree
frogs in South America
and Asia do get airborne.
When a flying frog leaps
between tree branches, it
glides down gently with
its toes outspread. The
webbing between the toes
catches the air and the
frog sails as if carried by a
parachute. The "flight"
can cover more than 50
feet!
•
• Frogs come in a wide
range of sizes and a
rainbow of colors. The
goliath frog of West
Africa is the size of a
small dog, measuring
about 15 inches from nose
to rump. On the other end
of the scale is Pyllophryne
didactyla, the world's
smallest frog, which is
found in Brazil. This little
frog is about the size of a
firefly and could sit easily
on top of a pencil eraser.
•
Do Frogs Cause Warts?
• You may have heard
this before, but it's just
not true. A toad's skin
may be bumpy and
warty-looking, but if
you touch a toad, you
will not get warts!
• Leopard Frog
• This is a typical
jumping frog,
with powerful
back legs. It's
native to the NE
and N-Central US.
• Fire-Bellied Toad
From Korea and north
China, this frog has a
spotted camouflaged
back. When startled, it
flips over or bends
backward to show its
bright belly as a warning
- poisonous! This toad
lacks the vocal sack that
is present in most other
frogs & toads, so its call
is very weak and can
only be heard over very
short distances.
• Smoky Jungle Frog
From the Amazon Basin
in South America, this big
frog is 5"-6" long. It
spends most of its time in
the jungle, away from
ponds and streams. To
keep her eggs moist, the
female oozes a liquid
from her body, beats it
into a frothy foam with
her back feet, and
deposits her eggs in the
foam. The outside of the
foam hardens into a shell
that protects the eggs
and keeps them moist.
• Argentine Leaf-
Folding Frog These
frogs reproduce by
depositing a
gelatinous clutch of
eggs into a leaf
funnel over water,
by folding a leaf and
gluing it together
with a sticky bodily
secretion. Tadpoles
hatch and fall into
the water below!
• Dyeing Poison
Arrow Frog This
poison arrow frog is
found in Guyana,
along the northern
Brazilian border.
Toxins from the
frog's skin must
enter the
bloodstream to be
lethal. Natives
believe that an
irritated frog, when
rubbed on a bald
spot of a parrot, will
cause the feathers to
grow in red.
• Blue Poison Arrow
Frog One of the
largest poison arrow
frogs, up to 2" long,
this frog is found
only in a single
partially wooded
savannah region of
Surinam. It was
discovered in 1969.
A spawning frog lays
just 4-6 eggs under
leaves by a pool.
• The Tomato Frog is
from Madagascar.
This species is
endangered, but
there is a species of
Tomato Frog that is
not endangered and
is sometimes
available from reptile
dealers.
• The Red-Legged
Frog is from
northwestern
North America.
This one is about
2-1/2 inches long.
• This African
Bullfrog looked
like he was
having a bad frog
day! He's huge
and warty, a good
6" across the
middle, and had
settled himself
into a nice mud
puddle. A fully
grown one can be
the size of a
football!
• This is a picture of a
'banana box' frog, sent
from Australia. Actually it
is a Dainty Green Tree
Frog from Queensland,
Australia but these frogs
grab a ride on produce
such as bananas as they
are shipped down south to
places like Victoria. It is
estimated that 6,000 to
8,000 frogs end up in
Melbourne (Victoria,
Aust.) from Queensland
each year.
• 1. they spend part of their
life cycle on land and
some in water
2. have a permeable skin
(which allows substances
to move relatively freely
into its body) and
3. absorb and concentrate
(make stronger) toxins
(poisonous substances) in
their fatty tissues