Frogs and Toads

Members of the Order Anura

[herpsandbirds]

Southern Toad (Anaxyrus terrestris), aberrant coloration, family Bufonidae, northern FL, USA

photographs by Dick Bartlett

[stickyfrogs]

Round Frog has heard that Angus and Betty are having Dinner and she has come to Help!

[herpsandbirds]

Two new species of Nanorana Günther, 1896 (Anura, Dicroglossidae) from Yunnan, China

Shuo Liu, Chao Bu, Mian Hou, Jing Chen, Yanfei Feng, Lue Ma, JiShan Wang, Dingqi Rao

ABSTRACT

Two new species of the Nanorana yunnanensis complex are described from southeastern and northeastern Yunnan Province, China, respectively, based on morphological and molecular evidence. The two new species can be distinguished from the three known species of this complex and each other by the difference in the skin texture, the visibility of the tympanum, the ventral coloration, and the distribution of the spines on the ventral surface of the head in adult males. Phylogenetically, the two new species formed two distinct clades in the N. yunnanensis complex and differ from other species of the complex and each other by 2.4–5.0% in the 16S gene sequences and 9.8–11.3% in the ND2 gene sequences. This study brings the total number of recognized species of the genus Nanorana to 36, of which 27 occur in China and 13 in Yunnan.

Read the paper here:

Two new species of Nanorana Günther, 1896 (Anura, Dicroglossidae) from Yunnan, China

B - Wenshan Spiny Frog (Nanorana wenshanensis) T - Zhaotong Spiny Frog (Nanorana zhaotongensis)

[theonion]

[frogsandtoadsfrogsandtoads]

o_0

[frogsandtoadsfrogsandtoads]

Currently feeling nostalgic for this line of educational children's books.

Btw, the episode of the BBC Eyewitness series dedicated to amphibians is available on YouTube (it's the US version narrated by Martin Sheen though, not the original with Andrew Sachs)

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

https://ko-fi.com/brokenmusicbox

[freenarnian]

you look great in that frog costume

[markscherz]

There is a happiness no-one else knows: the feeling of mud between fully webbed toes; the caress of a breeze on your moist shiny skin; the warmth of the sunlight that slowly soaks in; the gentlest hum of a thought far away, as you sit and you soak and let time tick away.

[chaser]

Boss is asleep, cannot stop me from frogposting

[chaser]

First like and this has already found its intended audience

[chaser]

uh oh

[frogsandtoadsfrogsandtoads]

Hehe :D

[herpsandbirds]

American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus), family Bufonidae, ONT, Canada

photograph by Thomas Boldt

[frogsandtoadsfrogsandtoads]

Classic toad form, nuthin' wrong with that :)

[stickyfrogs]

Today Jens and Voigt have received a Lovely Surprise in their Special Postbox! A Big Birthday Card from Mark in Western Australia!

They read the Very Kind Message from Mark and enjoyed looking at the Big Sparkly Balloons on the front! Thank you very much Mark! Jens and Voigt send you a wheelbarrow of Happy Smiles! 🐸🐸

[frogsandtoadsfrogsandtoads]

This is cute :)

[neil-gaiman]

How do you feel about frogs?

Positive.

[frogsandtoadsfrogsandtoads]

:)

[herpsandbirds]

Red-headed Poison Frog (Ranitomeya fantastica), male transporting tadpole, family Dendrobatidae, endemic to Peru

Poisonous.

photograph by ignacio_yufera

[herpsandbirds]

Helmeted Water Frog aka Chilean Helmeted Water Frog (Calyptocephalella gayi), family Calyptocephallidae, Patagonia, Chile

Photograph by José Grau de Puerto Montt

[amphibianaday]

day 1509

[frogsandtoadsfrogsandtoads]

I wonder what he's watching

[herpsandbirds]

Banded Rubber Frog (Phrynomantis bifasciatus), family Microhylidae, found in central and southern Africa

photograph by daniel_liepack

[markscherz]

given historical ranges of different species, what kinds of frogs could have been present for the plague of frogs in exodus?

Fantastic question. Let's assume that the Egyptians considered toads and frogs to be different organisms, and therefore the stories referring to frog plagues indeed mean frogs other than Bufonidae (I think this is a reasonable assumption). If this is the case, there are basically two key candidates: Ptychadena nilotica and Pelophylax saharicus. Ptychadena have the edge over Pelophylax because they are somewhat more tolerant of drier habitats. Sometimes they occur in huge densities, so that every step sends dozens springing away. Both can lay enormous clutches, many thousands of eggs, and in a particularly wet year, I could easily imagine a boom in froglet development that would cause a 'plague'. And because the frogs would be trying to disperse, but heading into habitat that is too dry for them to persist long-term, you would quickly have a lot of dead frogs.