Invasive species sound off about impending ecosystem changes
Anticipating changes to ecosystems is often at best an educated guess, but what if there was a way to better tune into possible changes occurring?
Anticipating changes to ecosystems is often at best an educated guess, but what if there was a way to better tune into possible changes occurring?
Plants & Animals
Apr 18, 2024
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Frogs display a remarkable diversity of species as a whole, but does the same hold true for their visual abilities? A new study led by York University's Faculty of Science has sought to answer this question by collaborating ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 4, 2024
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A fungus devastating frogs and toads on nearly every continent may have an Achilles heel. Scientists have discovered a virus that infects the fungus, and that could be engineered to save the amphibians.
Plants & Animals
Apr 3, 2024
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Paleontologists at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, have solved a hundred-year-old mystery of how some fossil frogs preserve their fleshy parts—it's all down to their skin.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 23, 2024
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Archaeobatrachia Mesobatrachia Neobatrachia - List of Anuran families
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura (meaning "tail-less", from Greek an-, without + oura, tail), formerly referred to as Salientia (Latin saltare, to jump). The name frog derives from Old English frogga, (compare Old Norse frauki, German Frosch, older Dutch spelling kikvorsch), cognate with Sanskrit plava (frog), probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European praw = "to jump".
Most frogs are characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits (fingers or toes), protruding eyes and the absence of a tail. Most frogs have a semi-aquatic lifestyle, but move easily on land by jumping or climbing. They typically lay their eggs in puddles, ponds or lakes, and their larvae, called tadpoles, have gills and develop in water. Adult frogs follow a carnivorous diet, mostly of arthropods, annelids and gastropods. Frogs are most noticeable by their call, which can be widely heard during the night or day, mainly in their mating season.
The distribution of frogs ranges from tropic to subarctic regions, but most species are found in tropical rainforests. Consisting of more than 5,000 species described, they are among the most diverse groups of vertebrates. However, populations of certain frog species are declining significantly.
A distinction is often made between frogs and toads on the basis of their appearance, caused by the convergent adaptation among so-called toads to dry environments; however, this distinction has no taxonomic basis. The only family exclusively given the common name "toad" is Bufonidae, but many species from other families are also called "toads," and the species within the toad genus Atelopus are referred to as "harlequin frogs".
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA