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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When it comes to laying eggs, tree frogs have some unusual habits. Instead of always laying their eggs on tree branches where they usually live, they often lay their eggs on the ground. But why would a tree frog do this, ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 15, 2024
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Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was listed under the federal ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 26, 2024
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A small international team of animal behavior researchers has found that species of glass frogs whose males help care for offspring tend to have smaller testes than species whose males do not help care for offspring. In their ...
A trio of biologists at Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, in Brazil, has verified that a tiny frog, Brachycephalus pulex, also known as the Brazilian flea toad, which is found only in southern Brazil, is not only the world's ...
An international team of Earth scientists, evolutionary biologists and paleontologists has unearthed an ancient frog with a belly full of eggs, the oldest known find of its kind. In their paper published in Proceedings of ...
The world's largest frog project has thrived because of citizen scientists using the FrogID app, the brainchild of a UNSW biologist.
Plants & Animals
Feb 6, 2024
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It is well known that some species of frogs tap their posterior toes as they are seeking prey; this can be seen in many videos posted online. However, only a few studies to date have looked at the tapping habit itself, and ...
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