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Amphibians
KNOWN SPECIES
8,566
0.36% of our world's living things are amphibians
CHARACTERISTICS
- animals with a backbone (vertebrates)
- they have small, rootless teeth on their jaws and the roofs of their mouths that are replaced throughout life
- they usually produce gelatinous egg masses, called spawn
SIZE RANGE
less than 0.40 inch to about 5 feet (1 centimeter to about 160 centimeters)
WHERE THEY LIVE
- in most freshwater environments and most land environments, usually close to water
- highest diversity in tropics
Here are just SOME of the world’s amphibians:
White's treefrog
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Ranoidea caerulea
long-tailed salamander
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Eurycea longicauda
American toad
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Anaxyrus americanus
red spotted newt
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Notophthalmus viridescens
blue poison frog
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Dendrobates auratus
Goliath frog
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Conraua goliath
hellbender
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Guess what?
Populations of frogs appear to be declining in many parts of the world due to habitat loss, global climate change, and the spread of disease.
Credits:
American toad, blue poison frog, long-tailed salamander, red spotted newt, White's treefrog, John White/© California Academy of Sciences; Goliath frog, M. Shanley/© AMNH; hellbender, © Drew Kanes/CC BY-NC.