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| Amphibians include frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders.
Amphibians are cold blooded animals, which means they can not produce their
own body heat. Amphibians are different from reptiles because they have
an aquatic gill breathing larval stage, (breathe under water when young)
and terrestrial lung breathing adult stage. (breathe air when older) Amphibians
are able to breath through their skin. Tadpoles are born in the water and
have gills and tails, but as they get older, they lose their tails, develop
legs, lose their gills and become frogs. Amphibians lay eggs and hang out
in moist areas like ponds. Most amphibians can swim and walk on land.
Amphibians are from the class Amphibia; from Greek αμφις "both" and βιος
"life".The study of amphibians and reptiles is known as herpetology. |
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Wood Frog |
American Toad |
Red Backed Salamander |
Red Spotted Newt |
| Vernal pools are large puddles which arrive
when much rain comes in the spring and winter, but dry up quickly in the
summer. And many amphibians lay eggs in them to protect them from predators.
But people are filling them in to make room for buildings and such, which
destroys the amphibian's eggs and ruins the habitat. |
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| Links |
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Ecology Page
Foodweb Page |