helo! long/weird question about toads, apology in advance. im trypophobic and the only thing i know about suriname toads is that. back... eggs... thing. understandably, this gives me a very unfavorable opinion of them. but i'd like to understand them better! i like frogs & toads generally. would u be able to tell me more about their role in the ecosystem, or maybe some enjoyable trivia about them that doesn't involve That Thing? i would google, but The Images... ty for your time & i hope youre having a nice day 🙏
Well first off, Pipa pipa is a pipid frog, not a toad (Bufonidae). They live in slow waters in South America, and require a certain depth to be able to breed. Why? Because in order for the eggs to their somewhat haunted destination, the male and the female have to do somersaults in the water together, where they first fall onto his belly and from there to her back. If the water is too shallow, the somersaults don’t get completed, and the eggs don’t get where they need to get. Interestingly, other species of Pipa, like Pipa carvalhoi, have their young emerge as tadpoles, instead of the froglets of P. pipa. I understand they frequently engage in cannibalism of these young if kept together in aquaria, so expecting mothers are best isolated in captivity. I imagine this must mean that the mothers kind of isolated themselves in the wild, too.
All of the Pipa species have SUPER weird hands, with weird finger tips.
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In P. pipa, they have weird little back-of-jaw ‘ear’ extensions
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as well as a series of what look like stitches along the side of the body. They also have dark lines on the belly that remind me of the dotted lines you would use to show where to cut. If you wanted to dissect one of these frogs, you would literally just follow these lines.
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All of these features are adaptations to their murky water environment, having sensory functions (not sure about the ventral lines, but I guess so).
Pipids are all fully aquatic frogs, and pretty much all species suck at moving on land. But they’re slippery devils, and so can practically ‘swim’ across the land, if it’s not too dry.
The Pipa pipa skeleton is *super* weird, with hips for days.
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These are from a super modified ilio-scaral joint to create strong thrust when swimming.
Pipa calls are made without needing air, unlike basically all other frogs. Instead, the calls are made by hammering two bones in the throat together, giving a metallic clicking sound. It is perhaps the only known instance of bone-on-bone bioacoustics.
So yes, there is a lot about these incredible frogs that is fascinating, quite aside from their unusual and sometimes triggering reproductive mode!
