Known to science since 1857, a common species of true frog (a "true frog" is one assigned to the family Ranidae), found from north-eastern Honduras, through Nicaragua and Costa Rica to central Panama, turns out to have been ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 11, 2019
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Research scientists led by the University of Kent have uncovered hidden diversity within a type of frog found only in the Seychelles, showing that those on each island have their own distinct lineage.
Plants & Animals
Apr 11, 2019
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The Indian bullfrog, which is native to the Indian sub-continent, has recently invaded the Andaman archipelago. This group of islands lies about 1200 km east of the Indian mainland. The bullfrog was probably introduced to ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 11, 2019
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The evolution of aquatic creatures to start living on land made them into more attentive parents, says new research on frogs led by the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath.
Plants & Animals
Apr 10, 2019
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The fate of a species may just rest on this love story.
Plants & Animals
Apr 02, 2019
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Dr. Jodi Rowley explains why frogs are so vital for healthy ecosystems, how she is working to conserve them and the positive impact she has already made to the study of amphibians in Southeast Asia.
Plants & Animals
Mar 29, 2019
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An international team of researchers led by NYU Abu Dhabi Postdoctoral Associate Sandra Goutte was studying the acoustic communications of these miniature frogs. When they discovered that Brachycephalus ephippium could not ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 29, 2019
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An international study led by The Australian National University (ANU) has found a fungal disease has caused dramatic population declines in more than 500 amphibian species, including 90 extinctions, over the past 50 years.
Ecology
Mar 28, 2019
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Miniaturised frogs form a fascinating but poorly understood group of amphibians. They have been exceptionally prone to taxonomic underestimation because when frogs evolve small body size they start to look remarkably similar ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 28, 2019
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Brazilian scientists have discovered that the strong odor released by some amphibian species is produced by bacteria and that attracting a mate is one of its purposes.
Plants & Animals
Mar 15, 2019
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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
