This page contains information on frogs and toads on the Herpetology List. For more general information about the event, see Herpetology.
Order Anura/Salientia (toads and frogs)
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Batrachia
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| Etymology
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From the Latin "salire, salio" meaning "to jump". Or the Latin "Anura" meaning "without tail.
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| Physical Appearance
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None are fully paedomorphic.
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| Life Cycle
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(life cycle)
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| Ecology, Habitat and Diet
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Live in most aquatic/damp habitats. Some species live in trees, deserts, or caves. They live in a lot of habitats, like rainforests, mountains, deserts, and swamps. They're mostly nocturnal. In the winter in temperate places they go through torpor to avoid freezing, and in arid places they'll bury underground to avoid cutaneous respiration because that leads to water loss.
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| Behavior and Locomotion
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External fertilization, the mating posture (amplexus) ensures the eggs and sperm contact, but there are exceptions. Some have a lot of eggs, feeding larvae, but others have terrestrial eggs, aquatic larvae, direct development, viviparity, or aquatic larvae that don't eat. 10% of species have parental care. They are territorial over nests, oviposition sites, etc. Temperate ones explosively breed, but tropical ones breed year round.
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| Conservation Status and Efforts
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(conservation status/efforts)
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| Distribution
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Worldwide except the poles. Fossils from the Jurassic to the Pleistocene have been found in Europe and the Americas, thought there is a very poor fossil record due to their small size, delicate skeletons, quickness to decay after death, and amount of cartilage which doesn't mineralize easily.
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| Miscellaneous Information
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It's the most diverse of the 3 amphibian orders.
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| Alternate names
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American spadefoot toads, North American spadefoots
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| Etymology
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“Spadefoot” because keratin bone in the hind legs for digging are shaped and used like spades.
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| Physical Appearance
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2-3 inches long. Round stocky bodies, bulging eyes, smooth grey/brown skin.
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| Life Cycle
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They wake from torpor when the thunder wakes them. After that, they undergo explosive reproduction. Before the thunder ends and the environment goes back to desert-like, tadpoles mature to toads and bury themselves. They prefer marshes, and only enter water to breed. Normally they stay in the soil.
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| Ecology, Habitat and Diet
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Live in arid climates, where they spend the majority of their lives underground, generally beneath perennial ponds, creek beds, or other moisture-retaining areas.
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| Behavior and Locomotion
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Spadefoots generally move using burrowing, hence the spade-shaped feet. They are generally a very dormant species, and area able to stay buried for months at a time by reducing their metabolism, storying waste as urea, and encasing themselves. They are solitary and generally avoid each other unless a same sex individual is near their burrow. They hibernate after reproduction.
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| Conservation Status and Efforts
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Pennsylvania declared it endangered in 2005. Ohio, Connecticut, and Rhode Island have low populations, because ponds dry before tadpoles can undergo their metamorphosis into a toad and start burrowing. All species are classified as least concern except the Western Spadefoot Toad (near threatened). All species need to be reviewed again, as of 2025.
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| Distribution
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At first they evolved in South America, but a species was forced to North America due to climate change, and diversified there.
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| Miscellaneous Information
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(miscellaneous)
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Genus Scaphiopus
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North American spadefoots, southern spadefoots, eastern spadefoot toads.
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(physical appearance)
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(ecology)
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(distribution)
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(miscellaneous)
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Family Bufonidae (true toads)
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Bufonids, crapauds, true toads
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| Etymology
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Bufonid is derived from the Latin word, "Bufo" which refers to the genus of toads. Toad comes from old English, "tādige"
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| Physical Appearance
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Known to have dry, warty skin, a plump body, and short legs/forelimbs. Their skulls are heavily ossified, and in many species the skin is co-ossified with the skull. They are typically around 20m-250mm long. They lack teeth.
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| Life Cycle
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(life cycle)
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| Ecology, Habitat and Diet
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(ecology)
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| Conservation Status and Efforts
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(conservation status/efforts)
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| Distribution
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Worldwide, except for Australia.
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| Miscellaneous Information
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(miscellaneous)
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Genus Anaxyrus (American toad & oak toad)
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(alternate names)
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| Etymology
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(etymology)
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| Physical Appearance
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(physical appearance)
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(life cycle)
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Family Hylidae (tree frogs)
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Tree frogs and their allies, Hylids, New World Tree Frogs, Treefrogs, Hylid Frogs, Leaf Frogs
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| Etymology
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Latin "Hyla", from the Greek "hylē" meaning wood/forest, named by Rafinesque in 1815
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| Physical Appearance
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Most hylids have forward facing eyes (binocular vision) with horizontal pupils, sticky toe pads with cartilage offsetting terminal phalanx (intercalary cartilage), in non-arboreal species these are reduced. In terrestrial species the toepads are pointed, but in arboreal species they are expanded. The skull has paired palatines and frontoparietals; 8 presacral holochordal, procoelous vertebrae; the pectoral girdle is arciferal with a well defined sternum; there are fibulare and tibiale at both ends; intercalary cartilage is present between the terminal and penultimate phalanges.
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| Life Cycle
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(life cycle)
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| Ecology, Habitat and Diet
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They mostly eat insects and other invertebrates, but some large ones can eat small vertebrates.
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| Behavior and Locomotion
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Perform axillary amplexus, a mating position where the male clasps the female just behind her forelimbs in the armpit region. They are nocturnal.
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| Conservation Status and Efforts
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Considered "not extinct".
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| Distribution
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(distribution)
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(miscellaneous)
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Genus Hyla (gray treefrog & green treefrog)
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all that Hylidae are referred to as, gray treefrog and green treefrog (are names of specific species in this genus)
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| Etymology
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Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768, after Hylas the companion of Hercules of Greek myths. Though Hylas was male, it is treated in the feminine grammatical gender. Etymology is also often incorrectly said to be from the Greek ὕλη (hūlē, "forest" or "wood").
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| Physical Appearance
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| Conservation Status and Efforts
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| Distribution
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Currently 17 extant (species from Europe, northern Africa and Asia, but previously when it was a wastebasket taxon there were more than 300 species found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and across the Americas.
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| Miscellaneous Information
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(miscellaneous)
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Genus Pseudacris (western chorus frog, ornate chorus frog & spring peeper)
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Genus Acris (cricket frogs)
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Family Ranidae (true frogs)
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Genus Lithobates (bullfrog, green frog, northern leopard frog & wood frog)
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(alternate names)
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Family Microhylidae (narrow-mouth toads)
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(alternate names)
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| Etymology
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(etymology)
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| Physical Appearance
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Most are less than 1.5 cm long, but some can be up to 9 cm. They come in two shapes: wide bodies with narrow mouths, and normal frog shape.
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| Life Cycle
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(life cycle)
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| Ecology, Habitat and Diet
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Most are fossorial or terrestrial, some are arboreal, some are aquatic, and one species is cave-dwelling. Frogs with the narrow mouthed body plan eat termites and eggs, others eat what normal frogs eat.
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| Behavior and Locomotion
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They generally breed during the wet season. Males initiate the breeding process by arriving at temporary ponds and forming choruses to attract females. Males produce mating calls to attract females, and are also territorial. The female then arrives, the male grasps the female in amplexus (the mating position of frogs and toads, in which the male clasps the female about the back) which can take up to 3 hours. The female then lays eggs. Egg laying methods are varied. They are ground dwellers under leaf litter who venture out at night to hunt.
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| Conservation Status and Efforts
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(conservation status/efforts)
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| Distribution
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The Americas, India, Southeast Asia to New Guinea, North Australia, sub Saharan Africa, Madagascar (most species are in Madagascar), and Florida in the Miocene.
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| Miscellaneous Information
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(miscellaneous)
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Genus Gastrophryne
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