Frogs

1. Frogs

2. 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.

3. Amphibians • Frogs are amphibians, animals that spend part of their lives under water and the remainder on land

4. They have long powerful back legs that they use for jumping. • They have short backbones.

5. All the Better to See You With! • EyesFrogs have keen eyesight to locate prey. They see colors and in dim light. Their bulging eyes see in all direction

6. 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

7. Most frogs have teeth (in the upper jaws only) but toads do not have any teeth.

8. Life Cycle • Like all amphibians, frogs spend their lives near water because they must return to the water to lay their eggs

9. Frog Eggs • Frog eggs are laid in the water.

10. Tadpoles • After about 10 days a tadpole wriggles out ofeach egg. At first the tadpole breathes andmoves like a fish, using its gills and long tail.

11. 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.

12. It takes three years for the frog to go through its life cycle .

13. In harsh climates, frogs bury themselves in sand and mud and hibernate (sleep very deeply) through the cold winter.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. Like all amphibians, frogs are cold-blooded, meaning that their body temperatures change with the temperature of theirsurroundings.

17. 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.

18. Diet • Frogs eat any animal they can capture and swallow, including worms, insects, crustaceans, other frogs, snakes, and even small mammals and birds.

19. They have webbed feet for swimming. • They have suction disks on their feet to help them climb

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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!

23. 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.

24. 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!

25. Leopard Frog • This is a typical jumping frog, with powerful back legs. It's native to the NE and N-Central US.

26. Fire-Bellied ToadFrom 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.

27. Smoky Jungle FrogFrom 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.

28. Argentine Leaf-Folding FrogThese 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!

29. Dyeing Poison Arrow FrogThis 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.

30. Blue Poison Arrow FrogOne 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.

31. 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.

32. The Red-Legged Frog is from northwestern North America. This one is about 2-1/2 inches long.

33. 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!

34. 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.

35. 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) and3. absorb and concentrate (make stronger) toxins (poisonous substances) in their fatty tissues