Most of us remember learning the life cycle of a frog when we were young children, being fascinated by foamy masses of frogspawn, and about how those little black specks would soon be sprouting legs. That was a while ago, though. We think it’s about time that we sat you down for a grown-ups’ lesson on the life cycle of a frog.
Frog eggs face a plethora of challenges from the moment they are laid. Eggs laid openly in water are subject to desiccation if the water level drops, and are in danger of being eaten by fish and various aquatic insects. Several species have adapted to these challenges by depositing their eggs on vegetation above water, or in or above water in tree holes. These new-borns face challenges too however, as upon hatching many of these tadpoles must drop into the water below in order to complete their development. This is only the beginning of their journey to adulthood, however, as these eggs will soon develop into tadpoles, before metamorphosing into adults.
Click on each stage of the frog’s life cycle in order to learn some of the science behind one of nature’s most fascinating transformations.
Featured image credit: ‘Perereca-macaco – Phyllomedusa rohdei’ by Renato Augusto Martins. CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Do some of the tadpoles of a frog species develop teeth to prey on their fellow tadpoles?
Frog life cycle in Hindi