Amphibians
Amphibian means '2 lives'. Most amphibians start their life in water. When they grow up they have a life on land.
There are different sorts of amphibians. Frogs and toads are amphibians.
There are different sorts of amphibians. Frogs and toads are amphibians.
A frog
A toad
Newts and salamanders are amphibians too.
A newt
A salamander
All amphibians have a backbone. Here are the bones of a frog.
Most amphibians: - have smooth, moist skin; - are cold-blooded; and - lay soft eggs in water. |
Soft eggs
Being cold-blooded means that amphibians need to get warm from the heat of the sun. If they get too hot, they have to find shade to help them cool down.
Most amphibians start their life in water, breathing through gills.
Photo by I, Handekos. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons. Gills captioned added.
Their bodies then change – they grow legs and their tails shrink.
When they become adults they can live on land. An adult has grown lungs to breathe air on land.
The big changes to their bodies is called metamorphosis. |
Adult amphibians can still swim in water.
A grown-up newt
Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Baby amphibians eat plants in water. Adult amphibians eat animals such as insects.
Some amphibians are poisonous. The poison in their bodies may kill a predator if it tries to eat them. Their bright skin warns predators to stay away.
The blue poison dart frog
Odd amphibians
The axolotl is a very odd amphibian. It has gills for all its life but it grows lungs too. Its gills stick out like feathers. Axolotls live in Mexico.
A Surinam horned frog
This frog is fat. It lies in wait for its prey and tries to eat all sorts of small animals. It may even try to eat a mouse!
More frogs