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Class amphibians: the rarest and strangest representatives. Amphibians are amazing creatures. Interesting facts about amphibians Interesting facts about amphibians

Amphibians are animals that live both in water and on land. These include frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. Amphibians lay their eggs in water, such as a pond or stream. They cannot live in salt water, so they are not in the seas. Newts and salamanders are amphibians. Unlike frogs and toads, they do not lose their tail when they grow up. Tritons are more attached to water than other amphibians. These are almost entirely aquatic animals.

Not quite lizards

Newts and salamanders look like lizards, but they are not reptiles, but amphibians. Their life begins and usually almost all passes in the water. Newts live in a temperate climate, in winter they crawl under logs and stones and hibernate. Salamanders live in warmer climates and do not need hibernation.

The largest salamander

The giant salamander is the largest amphibian animal, its length is up to 1.8 m.

Tritons are handsome

In many newts, the males are very beautiful. They become especially bright and beautiful in the mating season, when you need to attract the attention of females. The crested newt has a bright orange or yellow belly, and a large uneven crest runs along the entire back. Three species of newts live in Russia - common, crested and Asia Minor.

Caring for offspring

The female newt protects the eggs from predators by hiding them or wrapping them in the leaves of aquatic plants.

Fire salamander.

Fire salamanders got their name from the fact that they usually hide under logs, and they have to quickly jump out of the fire if they accidentally get there with firewood.

Frogs and toads

Poison frogs - poison dart frogs live in the Amazon forests. Their skin releases a poison that is deadly to animals and humans. The bright color of the frog warns that it is poisonous. The Indians used frogs to make poison arrows.

Rainforest tree frogs live far from bodies of water, but they still prefer damp places.

Skin breathing. Most frogs breathe not only with their lungs, but also with their skin, so their skin must be kept moist at all times. Frogs are excellent swimmers and usually live near water, except for tree frogs.

Frogs - jumpers

The powerful hind legs of the frog help it to jump far and high. Toads usually do not jump, but walk. Adult frogs and toads do not have tails.

The largest and smallest frog.

The largest frog is the goliath frog from West Africa. It weighs up to 3 kg, and the length of the elongated frog is almost 80 cm. The smallest frog lives in Brazil. Its length is only 8.5 mm.

flying frogs

Some tree frogs can glide in the air. On the fingers of their paws they have suction cups, and between the fingers they have membranes that work like spread wings.

toads

Generally, toads have drier skin than frogs. The skin of toads is covered with warts and can be poisonous. The hind legs of toads are shorter than those of a frog, and the toad usually walks rather than hops. Toads are usually less mobile than frogs.

In my dad's mouth. The male Darwin frog from Chile carries the eggs laid by the female in its mouth until the tadpoles hatch.

Amphibians

Amphibians, or amphibians, usually spend part of their lives in water and part on land. The very name "amphibian" means "living a double life." Amphibians were the first vertebrates to migrate from water to land almost 400 million years ago. More than 4500 species of amphibians are now known. Amphibians include frogs, toads, newts, salamanders. Most often, amphibian babies hatch in water from eggs. At first, they look like fish fry, but soon their paws grow and lungs appear for breathing air. A little more - and the animals are ready to go to land, where they usually spend almost their entire adult lives. But amphibians do not go far from the water and always return to the water to lay their eggs (caviar).

The sounds made by the barking tree frog, as its name implies, is the barking of a dog, and with a variety of variations, consisting of about a dozen sounds. Both male and female amphibians of this species bark. Frog "barking" is born in the throat pouches. Usually imperceptible, when "singing" these bags inflate almost to the size of the frog itself.

Frog - bull

The bull frog lives in North America, reaches a length of twenty centimeters and weighs about seven hundred grams. These frogs are real predators: they feed on invertebrates, small fish and frogs, and sometimes even waterfowl chicks. Males, especially during the mating season, make loud, bull-like sounds that carry around for a mile or more. Gourmets appreciate the most tender meat of the hind legs of a frog - a bull, a pair of which weighs almost four hundred grams. In the US, these large amphibians are bred on several farms.

Studying amphibians, scientists discovered they have remarkable navigational abilities, the ability to navigate by the sun, moon and stars. A noisy frog lives in North America (an adult reaches a length of seven centimeters), which, if it finds itself in an unfamiliar place, orienting itself on the ground and choosing the right direction in a short time, sets off and unmistakably finds its habitat.

As you know, the body of tailless amphibians is covered with bare, unprotected skin. However, hairy frogs were discovered in 1900 in Gabon (Central Africa). As a result of their study, it became clear that the "wool" of frogs is only additional outgrowths of the skin that produce mucus, with the help of which the body retains moisture, which is especially necessary for amphibian species that live in hot climates.

Frogs - females make sounds if they get hurt, but loud croaking is heard at night - songs exclusively of males. The main purpose of their concerts is to attract the attention of females during the mating season. But even after this period they perform their guttural songs.

Red-eyed tree frog, the length of its body reaches seven centimeters from the genus Phyllomedusa, settles near water bodies, mainly in forests. These amphibians are diurnal. They look with unusual red eyes, the lower eyelids of which are covered with a mesh pattern. With impending danger, these emerald-colored beauties close their eyes and turn invisible against the background of bright green foliage, for which they are often called ghost frogs. The red-eyed tree frog is the owner of tenacious paws, the first finger of which is opposed to the rest, for which it allows it to deftly grab onto tree branches. Larger than the male, the female, having put the partner she likes on her back, climbs, like a real climber, with him on a tree, to a height of up to seven meters. They move on smooth surfaces with the help of special suction cups that are on their fingers. The sticky liquid secreted from the fingertips, as well as from special glands in the throat and abdomen, allows tree frogs to better hold on to the surface.

Blue poison dart frog (its body length is about four centimeters) can only be found in South Suriname, in forests near streams. Dark sapphire in low light, in bright light it literally phosphorescent. Meanwhile, this dandy of amazingly beautiful color is far from harmless. The skin of the rare blue poison dart frog produces a very strong poison, which makes it extremely dangerous for large animals and humans.

The coloring poison dart frog, about four centimeters in size, lives in Central and South America, from Nicaragua and Costa Rica to Southeast Brazil and Bolivia. It usually settles in the lower tier of a moist forest, in old trees with small hollows and crevices at the base of the trunk. These amphibians secrete a special mucus, which you smear, for example, on the skin of parrot chicks, and instead of green feathers, they will grow red. Interestingly, the mucus also contains epibatidine, a powerful pain reliever. It is two hundred times more effective than morphine and does not cause negative side effects.

Tree frog - cocked hat, body length of almost ten centimeters, an extremely rare frog of the family of marsupial tree frogs - lives in South America. The protective coloration makes it look like a piece of tree bark or lichen, so this frog becomes completely invisible against the background of trees and stones. Taking care of the offspring, the female carries the fertilized eggs in a special leather pocket, which is located on her back.

It is frogs that produce the strongest poisons in nature. The record holder for "poisonousness" is the Colombian leaf frog ukoki. The poison of this crumb in toxicity, many times greater than that of a snake, retains its strength for several years. The Indians rubbed their arrowheads with it, one frog was enough to make fifty poisoned arrows. Once in the blood, ukoki poison kills a person in a few minutes. the same substances also have bactericidal properties, thanks to which frogs destroy harmful microorganisms that fall on their skin. In the old days, frogs were placed in containers with milk so that it would not turn sour: their poisonous mixture inhibited the growth of lactic acid bacteria, and the milk remained fresh.

The decisive evolutionary link between water-dwelling fish and land mammals, as well as reptiles, are some of the most amazing animals on Earth -. In this article, you will discover 10 interesting facts about amphibians.

1. Amphibians live near water

The word "amphibian" means "double life", which pretty much sums up the peculiarity of these vertebrates: they lay their eggs in water and also need constant access to moisture to survive. Only a few amphibian species are in the middle of the evolutionary tree between the fully aquatic fish, terrestrial reptiles and mammals.

2. There are three main types of amphibians

Scientists divide amphibians into three main orders: tailless (frogs and toads), tailed (newts and salamanders) and legless (worms). At present, science knows about 6,000 species of frogs and toads, about 500 species of newts and salamanders, and less than 100 species of caecilians. All amphibians are technically classified as amphibians, but there are also two extinct groups of amphibians: thin vertebral and temnospondylic, some of which reached gigantic sizes during the late Paleozoic.

3. Most amphibians undergo metamorphosis

True to their evolutionary position (halfway between fish and fully terrestrial vertebrates), most amphibians are born from eggs laid in the water and spend a short period of life in the aquatic environment, equipped with external gills. Then, the larvae undergo a metamorphosis in which they shed their tails, overgrow their gills, grow strong legs, and develop primitive lungs in order to make their way to land at some point. The best-known larval stage is the frog tadpole, but the process of metamorphosis that occurs in them is less striking than in newts and salamanders.

4. Millions of years ago, amphibians dominated the Earth

For about 60 million years, from the beginning of the Carboniferous to the end of the Permian, amphibians were the dominant land animals on the planet, until they gave way to reptiles that developed from isolated amphibian populations, including archosaurs (ancestors of dinosaurs) and therapsids (ancestors of mammals). The classic representative of temnospondylic amphibians was the large-headed eriops, which had a body length of up to 2 meters.

5 Amphibians Have Permeable Skin

One of the reasons amphibians should stay near bodies of water is that they have thin, water-permeable skin. If they move too far from the water, they literally dry up and die. To help keep their skin moist, amphibians constantly secrete mucus (hence the reputation of frogs as "slippery" creatures), and their dermis is littered with glands that produce toxic substances meant to ward off predators. In most species, these toxins are barely noticeable, but some frogs are so venomous that they can kill an adult human.

6. Amphibians evolved from lobe-finned fish

During the Devonian period, about 400 million years ago, lobe-finned fish ventured onto land. They developed several key features: a musculoskeletal frame to support their weight on land, and nostrils and leg bones, which gave rise to subsequent evolution, during which, over several million years, the first primitive amphibians appeared, such as eukritta and crassigyrinus.

7. Like reptiles, amphibians are cold-blooded

A warm-blooded metabolism is generally reserved for more "advanced" vertebrates, so it's not surprising that amphibians are cold-blooded animals, warming up and cooling down according to ambient temperature. The advantage of cold-blooded animals is that warm-blooded animals need much more food to maintain their internal body temperature, but the main disadvantage is that they are limited in the ecosystem in which they can develop. Just a few degrees hotter or colder than their limit means imminent doom.

8 Amphibians Swallow Their Prey Whole

Unlike reptiles and mammals, amphibians do not have the ability to chew food. They have only a few teeth on the front top of their jaws, allowing them to hold writhing prey. Compensating for this shortcoming is that most amphibians have long, sticky tongues that they eject at lightning speed to capture prey.

9 Amphibians Have Extremely Primitive Lungs

Much of the progress in vertebrate evolution goes hand in hand with the development of lung efficiency. Amphibian lungs have a relatively low internal volume, and are unable to process as much air as the lungs of reptiles and mammals. Fortunately, amphibians can absorb small amounts of oxygen through their permeable skin, which allows them to maintain their metabolic needs.

10. Amphibians are one of the most endangered animals in the world.

Their small size, permeable skin, and dependence on water make amphibians more vulnerable than most other animals and endangered. It is estimated that half of the planet's amphibian species are directly threatened by pollution and habitat destruction, invasive species, and even ozone depletion. Perhaps the biggest threat to frogs, salamanders and caecilians is chytrid fungi, which some experts attribute to global warming.

Let amphibians be not the most attractive and cute creatures. Not kittens after all, to please everyone. But among them there are also the most interesting rare individuals that are able to conquer anyone with a truly extravagant appearance. Let's get acquainted with this strange class of animals (such as neither on earth nor on water - neither yours nor ours) and learn more about the most prominent representatives.

Signs of amphibians: duplicity as a gift

Amphibians, they are also amphibians (translated from Greek means "the one that lives a double life") - these are the groups of animals that can live both on land and in water. Therefore, against the background of all other living beings, they stand out and have a number of advantages.

The main external sign of an amphibian is "nudity" (they are devoid of wool or any other heat-insulating covers). It is believed that the progenitors of amphibians were lobe-finned fish. But they themselves gave life to reptiles.

Types of amphibians: with or without a tail?

Scientists distinguish three types of amphibians by the presence and development of the tail and paws.

Anurans

They have a short body, a poorly defined neck, developed legs (the hind legs are larger and more massive than the front ones: they serve to move by jumping), of course they do not have a tail. This species includes toads, frogs, tree frogs, spadefoot, toads, and others. This is the most numerous detachment, which has about five thousand different species.

Tailed amphibians

They have a long body, which ends with a strong developed tail, but their paws are short and weak (although there are exceptions). Among the representatives of this order, the most noticeable newts, salamanders. In total, the group has about five hundred species. And just some types of salamanders stand out against the general background - they can run fast and even jump.

Legless (they are worms)

They differ in that they have neither a tail nor paws - the animals are unlucky, they seem completely helpless! Moreover, they also look very unattractive - these amphibians look like nasty worms. And from a scientific point of view, they have the most primitive structure of their kind.

Not only hypocrites, but opportunists

Animals belonging to the class of amphibians are surprisingly tenacious - they live on all continents of the globe, except for Antarctica. They are still opportunists: very salty waters, arid territories and serious cold - they have nothing to do with any difficulties! You will climb into the Himalayas - you will meet an amphibian in the mountain heights.

And if you are brought into the desert or beyond the Arctic Circle (you never know what is fanciful for the sake of entertainment), then they are here too, just like underground.

True, these are rather exceptional options. The most fertile environment for amphibians is humid, warm and satisfying (where it is easy for amphibians to find edible prey) tropical countries.

Amphibious Animals: Immortal Snow Queen

One of the rarest amphibians is the Siberian salamander. It has a unique cold resistance, which allows this amphibian to exist, in principle, in conditions uncharacteristic of the class - in the harsh north of Russia (the territory from the Urals to Kamchatka). And these are temperatures reaching 30-35 degrees below zero, and permafrost ...

It is noteworthy that these creatures can survive even in ice for several years in a row. After such seemingly frozen individuals were found by geologists, they thawed, warmed up and returned to frisky life. How can one return to life after an icy death? The fact is that during frost, the water in the cells of this amphibian turns into glycerin, which protects them from certain death.

Rare amphibians: the frog that doesn't croak

But in the lowlands of the British mountains lives a kind of frog, called chicken. In addition to being one of the largest frog species in the world (reaching 21 centimeters), its meat also has an exceptional taste.

Actually, for this, a green amphibian of peculiar beauty was called that. True, only wealthy criminal gourmets can now afford such a delicacy, because it is under the protection of the country as a species on the verge of extinction.

The fish that walks

Either a fish or a reptile - a very strange creature! Another unique class of amphibians with awesome names is a water monster, a walking fish, and in science, an axolotl. He, too, can boast of unbanal beauty and strange qualities of survival.

The most remarkable of them is that these amphibians reach sexual maturity without passing into the adult stage, but remaining a larva, sometimes even for life. They, as befits amphibians, can live both on land and in water. But often they do not “work” on the development of the lungs, like other amphibians, but live in water spaces, but without the scales that fish rely on.

Take it, tell your friends!

Incredible regeneration

The class of amphibians is known for its ability to renew lost organs and quickly restore tissues. But even against the background of all other representatives of the class, the crested newt stands out far ahead due to its amazing regeneration abilities.

In the surrounding nature, he has many enemies, so injuries and damage to the body for this amphibian are not uncommon. Scientists have noticed that healing occurs at a speed that is simply amazing. After that, numerous laboratory studies began, during which it was possible to establish that the crested newt can re-grow almost any organ. After the complete loss of paws or tail, they are restored in 3-4 months. Even after both eyes were completely removed, they grew in 10 months and were in no way inferior to those that were before: the amphibian could see with them in the same way.

And even on this, the amazing properties of the crested newt did not end there. If in the reservoir where he lives, the water freezes and the animal turns into ice, then after thawing it continues to live, as if nothing had happened. If a severe drought occurs, the newt turns into a dried mummy, which, it would seem, will never come to life. But after the first rain, it restores all the tissues of the body and continues to live and multiply.

Honeycombs on the back

The pipa toad does not trust the environment in the responsible business of raising offspring, preferring to ensure the safety of her children herself. While the male is spawning, the female puts her back under the stream of eggs, and the male carefully presses them directly into the skin of the female. A few hours later, her back outwardly resembles a honeycomb, in which from 40 to 144 eggs are securely hidden.

She bears the pipa of her children for 80 days. During this time, they manage to hatch from eggs, turn into tadpoles and become fully formed individuals. Mom's back swells more and more, and it becomes very difficult for her to move, as her weight increases by almost 3 times. Nutrition and oxygen to the cubs come from the mother's body, so during the months of gestation, the pipa is very depleted.

After the babies become sufficiently formed, they break through the film and actively get out, spreading in different directions. This is how their long independent life begins, in which they will be able to acquire their own offspring only after 6 years of age.

Spiked Behemoths

Crested newts living in China lead a predominantly aquatic lifestyle. Their females are no different from most newts, but the males look different: they have a spiked crest on their backs that grows to an impressive size during the mating season.

The body length of this amazing amphibian is from 11 to 20 cm, and the spiked crest reaches 2 cm. When these animals begin the mating season, they often crawl out onto the banks of water bodies, straightening their crest, which becomes brighter than usual.

It was during this period that people who often experience mystical horror can stumble upon these frightening-looking amphibians, because crested newts resemble small dragons and look intimidating. Several centuries ago, for this reason, they were massively exterminated, mistaking them for manifestations of evil spirits, which affected their numbers.

Above and Beyond

The Javan flying frog is one of the few amphibians that can soar like a bird. Of course, this is not the full-fledged flight characteristic of birds, but with the help of its adaptations, an amphibian can perfectly plan.

With a size of only 10-12 cm, the Javanese flying frog can soar at a distance of as much as 12 m. To do this, during the jump, it spreads the membranes on the fingers of all four paws, catching air currents. The total area of the interdigital membranes of this small amphibian is 19 cm2. Thanks to this amazing ability, she can catch up with any insect of interest to her, so the flying huntress is not in danger of starvation.

The beauty and the Beast

An amazing amphibian called the American Proteus is both a beauty and a beast. Among the salamanders, it ranks second in size: the body of an amazing amphibian is about 40 cm. The salamander does not look very attractive, since it has very small eyes located on a large grayish head. But on the cheeks there are gill outgrowths, painted in bright red. It is these beautiful outgrowths that unmistakably indicate belonging to the species.

For a long time, scientists considered the American Proteus to be a larval form of another amphibian species, but then it was found that it was an independent biological unit. Unlike other salamanders, in the American Proteus, the surface of the skin does not contain toxic substances that help scare away predators, so it often has to hide from birds or predatory fish.

Another interesting fact is known about the American Proteus: it is the only salamander capable of making rather loud sounds. They resemble the barking of a small dog, for which in America this amphibian is called the "squealing puppy."

Blind worker

The purple frog was discovered as recently as 2003. The reason that she went unnoticed for so long was a special way of life in which the amphibian spends most of its life in burrows and pits.

The appearance and shape of the body does not particularly resemble ordinary frogs, since the head is very small with a pointed muzzle, and the body looks like a shapeless jelly mass. It looks like a very clumsy amphibian, but in reality it is not at all like that. With a body size of up to 9 cm, this amphibian is able to dig a hole 3.7 m deep in just a couple of minutes. To do this, it works very actively with its front and hind legs. The purple frog crawls out to the surface from holes and pits extremely rarely, since its small eyes see almost nothing. Only the need for reproduction can force her to leave her home, since the mating season takes place on the surface of the earth. After the breeding instinct is satisfied, the amazing animal again hides at a safe depth, where there is enough dampness and coolness.

Vanishing Giant

The largest creature among amphibians is the gigantic salamander. Its length can reach 160 cm, while its tail is not long, so most of this length falls on the body and head. Due to such huge size and weight, the amphibian is impressive - about 180 kg. His life expectancy most often lasts from 55 to 60 years.

It was these amazing amphibians that appeared many millions of years ago and were able to survive the heyday of the reptile era and the death of dinosaurs, successfully adapting to changing living conditions. But now a new threat looms over them, with which this species copes less successfully. The fact is that the meat of the gigantic salamanders is very tender and soft, which caused the mass destruction of the population in Japan and China, where these amphibians live. So far, the situation cannot be changed by the fact that the gigantic salamander was included in the international Red Book and taken under the protection of the law.

In addition to the barbaric attitude on the part of people, the population of the species was seriously affected by the deterioration of the state of natural reservoirs, since these amphibians can only live in clean water without industrial pollutants. In order to somehow remedy the situation, a huge nursery for breeding giant salamanders has been created in China, where they are kept in ideal conditions and successfully breed.

dangerous kid

Zimmerman's poison dart frog is considered one of the most poisonous frogs on the planet. Its body size is only 2 cm, but it is easy to notice this amphibian in nature due to its bright colors. The beautiful blue and green color and the large spots on its back look like it's straight out of a children's coloring book, but the amphibian is by no means safe.

On the surface of her skin contains a strong poison batrachotoxin, which can cause a spasm of the heart muscles in humans and cause rapid respiratory arrest. This fact was discovered by the Indians of Peru, who learned to use it to their advantage: they passed an arrow through the body of a poison dart frog, after which it became deadly for enemies and capable of killing the enemy in a few seconds.

There are amphibians, which are known only to zoologists - caecilians. They are distinguished from the rest of the class by the complete absence of limbs, so in appearance they are more like something in between snakes and earthworms. The largest representative has a length of 1.55 m and looks creepy.

Such amphibians can live in the soil, inside anthills or termite mounds. Worm eyes almost do not see, but these animals have an excellent sense of smell, allowing them to find worms that serve as food for them.

In many species of caecilians, hatchlings first eat the mother's skin, which is the best food for them. At the same time, they do not harm their parent, as they eat only the top layer, rejuvenating her skin.

The study of amphibians does not stop, so every year scientists discover new amazing species that have survived to this day far from human eyes.

The Latin name comes from the Greek amphíbios - living a double life.

The class Amphibians totals more than 6700 (according to other sources - about 5000 modern species, which makes this class relatively few in number.

In Russia, there are 28 species, and in the relatively small Madagascar - 247 species.

The class Amphibians, among others, includes,.

Amphibians are the first vertebrates to switch from an aquatic to an aquatic-terrestrial lifestyle.

It belongs to the most primitive terrestrial vertebrates. Amphibians occupy an intermediate position between terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates.

Reproduction in most species occurs in water.

Amphibians, like, lay eggs, because. their eggs (caviar) and embryos are devoid of adaptations for terrestrial development. Development ends with Metamorphosis, during which the larvae lose their resemblance to fish and turn into adult animals.

Adults live on land.

The organization of amphibians as terrestrial vertebrates is in many ways imperfect: the intensity of metabolism is very low, the body temperature is unstable and corresponds to the temperature of the external environment.

All amphibians have thin, smooth skin that is relatively easily permeable to gases and liquids. Moist and soft skin plays an important role in respiration in amphibians. The moisture of the skin, necessary for gas exchange, is maintained by the secretions of the mucous glands. In some species, the mucus can be poisonous.

The skin is an additional organ for gas exchange and is equipped with a dense network of capillaries.

All amphibians feed only on moving prey. At the bottom of the oropharyngeal cavity is the tongue. When catching, the tongue is thrown out of the mouth, prey sticks to it. The jaws have teeth that serve only to hold prey. In frogs, they are located only on the upper jaw.

All modern amphibians are predators.

The teeth serve only to grasp and hold the prey. At toads teeth are completely missing.

There are no herbivorous animals among amphibians due to an extremely sluggish metabolism.

Amphibians feed on small animals (mainly insects and invertebrates), and are prone to cannibalism. In aquatic species, juvenile fish may be included in the diet, and the largest prey on the chicks of waterfowl and small ones that have fallen into the water.

In the life cycle of amphibians, four stages of development are clearly distinguished: egg, larva (tadpole), metamorphosis period, adult.

For the development of an egg (caviar), its constant moisture is necessary. The vast majority of amphibians lay their eggs in fresh water, but there are known exceptions: giant salamanders, amphibian frogs and some other amphibians lay eggs on land. Eggs need even in these cases a high humidity environment, the provision of which falls on the parent.

Species are known that carry eggs on their bodies: male midwife toads wrap a cord-like masonry around their hind legs, a female netted copepod frog attaches eggs to their stomach.

The fertilized eggs of the Surinamese pipa are pressed by the male into the back of the female, and the latter carries it on herself until young pipas hatch from the eggs.

The larvae that hatch from the eggs lead an aquatic lifestyle. They resemble fish in their structure: they do not have paired limbs, they breathe with gills (external, then internal). Only some species are already born in the form of small tailless frogs.

The larvae undergo metamorphosis and turn into adults leading a terrestrial lifestyle.

Amphibians of some species take care of their offspring (toad, tree frogs).

Fossil amphibians are much more numerous and diverse than modern ones.

Extinct amphibians: 1 - Eogyrinus; 2 - Eryops; 3 - Gerrothorax; 4 - Seymouria; 5 - Metoposaurus; 6 - Ophiderpeton; 7 - Diplocaulus; 8 - Cardiocephalus.

But modern amphibians are quite diverse and interesting:

Amphibians. 1 – ringed worm (Siphonops annulatus); 2 - Proteus (Proteus anguinus); 3 - red false newt (Pseudotriton ruber): 4 - fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra); 5 - common newt (Triturus vulgaris), female, 6 - male; 7 - Asia Minor newt (Triturus vittatus), female, 8 - male; 9 - axolotl - larva of ambistoma (Ambistoma tigrinum); 10 – Far Eastern toad (Bombina orientalis); 11 – tree frog (Hyla arborea).

Amphibians. 1 - spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus); 2 - slingshot (Ceratophrys cornuta); 3 - variable atelope (Atelopus varius); 4 - Venezuelan shorthead (Atelopus cruciger); 5 - South African narrowmouth (Breviceps adspersus); 6 - American frog (Rana pipiens); 7 - moored frog (Rana terrestris), male in nuptial plumage, 8 - male in normal plumage; 9 - green frog (Rana esculenta).

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