Description and Habitat
The wood frog is part of the amphibian family and is nothing short of unique. It can range from 3.5 to 7.6 cm in length. Suggested by the name, it is a frog that is found mainly in wooded areas, lakes, forests and boggy land; however they can just about survive anywhere there is enough water available in the spring for breeding.
The wood frog is the most widely distributed amphibian, mainly dispersed throughout the North American region, indicated by the image below. "It is found farther north than any other North American reptile or amphibian, and is the only frog found north of the Arctic Circle. (Conant and Collins, 1998, Kiehl, K. 2000) They range in colours, "usually browns, tans and rust, but can also be found in shades of green and gray. In all cases however, they can be distinguished by a black patch that extends over the tympanum to the base of the front limb". (Kiehl, K. 2000)
Range of Wood frog:
First pic: (Enviornment and Natural Resources 2012)
Second pic:
http://idahoherps.pbworks.com/w/page/8133239/Rana%20sylvatica,%20Wood 20frog
Adaptations to their enviornment
As the wood frogs are ectothermic, one of the major adaptations to their envionment is the adaptation to climate change.
Unlike any other animal, wood frogs have the unique ability to witstand freezing conditions in their habitats during the winter months by undergoing a unique process allowing for 65% of their bodies to freeze. Once the temperatures begin to drop, ice starts to form in the habitat and after just one touch of ice, the wood frog starts to freeze. "Even more incredible is the fact that the wood frogs stop breathing and their hearts stop beating entirely for days to weeks at a time. In fact, dur...
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...ates sylvaticus)." [online], available: http://www.naturenorth.com/spring/creature/woodfrog/wf2.html [Accessed: 19 Feb 2014].
Sirucek, 2014. "How Arctic Frogs Survive Being Frozen Alive" [online] available: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/21/how-the-alaska-wood-frog-survives-being-frozen/ [Accessed: 19 Feb 2014].
Encyclopedia of Life, 2014. "Facts about Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) - Encyclopedia of Life" [online] available: http://eol.org/pages/331212/details [Accessed: 19 Feb 2014].
Cranfield University, 2014. "Developing animal instincts for business survival" [online], available: http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/p17319/Think-Cranfield/2012/March-2012/Developing-animal-instincts-for-business-survival
Fcps.edu, 2014. "wood frog" [online] available: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/wood_frog.htm [Accessed: 19 Feb 2014].
tail. They have gray or rosy brown backs with lighter gray or brown hind legs and have
There are some nice adaptations for the Strawberry dart frog. They can extract toxic alkaloids from variance of mites, ants, millipedes, and beetles. When they extract these poisons, they store it in compounds in glands on their skin. Lisa Lester says that when the frog feels threatened, they can release the toxins stored in their glands at the enemy. (Lisa Lester, “Strawberry Poison Frogs Feed Their Babies Poison Eggs”)
Nicholson KE, Harmon LJ, Losos JB. Evolution of Anolis Lizard Dewlap Diversity. PLOS ONE. 2007
Isopods have the highest species diversity in natural habitats such as wetlands and natural forests. The species richness in these habitats is directly correlated to the presence of both the species typical to natural areas and the synanthropic ones. The high diversity in these areas can be contributed to terrestrial isopods showing a preference for moist environments with large amounts of organic matter available (FERENTI et al 2013). The terrestrial isopod is known as a crustacean and they show a preference in these moist environments mainly because the have gills for breathing. Since they have gills they must stay in areas that tend to have more moisture (Ayari et al 2016). Environments similar to natural rain forests and wetlands tent to have a more acidic soils. These acidic soils are rich in metals that are nutritious for the isopods. In these moist environment isopods can find soils and leaves that contain large quantities of cadmium and many other heavy metals. They consume these heavy metals and in turn
These fine specimens live in places where there are hard trees like oak, hickories, and walnut. These places include Maryland and eastern united states like Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Cane Toads are also hard to catch and kill. Cane Toads are a little bigger than a tea cup and they live in Australia’s forests making it even harder to notice them. Cane Toads are also amphibians, so they can stay underwater or on land...
I had recently watched a documentary show on these Giant Salamanders, and the researchers were overturning rocks and searching in crevices waist deep in these very waters. The Nantahala River, located near Bryson City North Carolina, is home to many aquatic creatures, including this elusive Giant Salamander.
Before beginning teaching the life cycles of a frog, bumble bee, butterfly/moth, and dragonfly one must become very familiar with the material. So, first of all, study the life cycle of a frog. Looking at a diagram of each life cycle while reading the material will be very helpful. Female frogs first lay jelly-covered eggs in the water. There are thousands of eggs and they take about 10 days to hatch. After hatching, eggs become tiny tadpoles. The tadpole at this stage in life is eating, swimming, and growing. It has a tail to help it swim. As the tadpole grows older it sprouts legs and is now called a “Froglet” as it is beginning to look more like a frog. As it grows legs, its tail shrinks. The froglet will soon grow front legs and develop lungs, its eyes and mouth grow larger, and its tail will continue to shrink. Once the Froglet grows large enough and loses its tail, it is officially considered a Frog. It can now live outside of the water and leap around to travel places as oppose to swimming. Frogs tend to hibernate in the winter while it is cold, and then in the spring find a mate, reproduce, and lay eggs again so that the process can continue.
the species to several locations in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The book recounts the basic natural
Amphibian decline is a serious global topic and is especially harmful in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Specifically, there are many causes of amphibian decline in Virginia. The Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia ranks Virginia 12th in population at an annual growth rate of 7% (Kelhart, 2006). Of Virginia’s 79 species of amphibians, four species are classified as near threatened, three species are classified as vulnerable, and one species is classified as endangered (Amphibians in VA, n.d.).
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura. The order Anura is broken down into 22 different families of frogs and toads. Although they belong to the same order, frogs and toads are different in a lot of ways. Some of the more distinct differences are their skin and where they live. Frogs usually have smooth moist skin and toads usually have dry watery looking skin. Frogs spend most of their lives in or near water and toads spend more time on land. Amphibian means "double life." Frogs and toads each have two parts to their lives: when they live on water and when they live land. A frog's life starts in the water when it is hatched from an egg as a tadpole. A tadpole looks very different from an adult frog. A tadpole has a tail, no limbs, and breathes through gills. After a while the tadpole goes through metamorphosis. During the change the frog grows limbs, the tail disappears, it uses lungs to breathe, and it doesn't have to live in water anymore. As a tadpole, the frog feeds mostly on vegetation. The tadpoles have a small rasping mouth suited especially for scraping algea from the bottom of ponds. Depending on the species, it can take a few weeks to a year or more for the tadpoles to become fully grown. Not all frogs hatch as tadpoles. Some species of frogs hatch as froglets. Froglets look just like adult frogs but are a lot smaller. Froglets don't go through a metamophosis. Most species that hatch as froglets are found in dry places. Frogs who live in dry places where rains are seasonal have to grow up quickly because a tadpole will die if their temporary pond dries up. Adult frogs can live in water or on land, but it always needs to be near water so its respiratory organs don't dry out.
Frogs live on every continent except Antarctica, but tropical regions have the largest amount. Like all amphibians, frogs spend half their lives near water because they must return to the water to lay their eggs. Frogs live underwater mostly when the are growing up to be an adult frog and when they are laying their eggs. When they hatch under water they are tadpoles and the breath with gills and swim using a tail. As they mature they loose their tail and they develop to be able to breathe air. During an extensive period of heat, a drought, frogs can enter a period of damancy similar to hibernation called starvation. Most of the frogs live in tropical and semitropical regions, most species of frogs breed in the spring or in early summer. Although the different species my vary in size and color, mostly all frogs have basic body structure. They have large hind legs, short front legs and flat head and body with no neck.
Ian Stirling, Nicholas J. Lunn and John Iacozza, 1999. "Long-term trends in the population ecology of polar bears in western Hudson Bay in relation to climate change", Arctic 52(3):294-306. September 1999.
The gastric brooding frog, Rheobatrachus silus swallowed its eggs, kept its young in its stomach and gave birth through its mouth (figure 1). Unfortunately this frog became extinct in 1983.