Alyssa Retterath and Aditi Patel

1st Period Biology

• KINGDOM: Animalia

• Phylum: Chordata

• Class: Amphibia

• Order: Anura and Urodela

• Anuras are frogs and toads.

• Urodelas are newts and salamanders.

Classification

HabitatThey tend to stay in cupped shaped bases of plants. They also stay in trunks and branches of trees.They live in dry and wet environment, tropical rainforest.

Amphibians Important to Humans• Amphibians were

used in Folk medicine in the early ages for healing.

• They are an important part of mythology, culture, art, and literature.

Important to Environment

• Amphibians are used as biomonitors. (Indicator animals)

• Pollution in the water

causes an upset in the

amphibian life cycle.

Threatened amphibians

Environmental Importance

• They are becoming extinct and we don’t know why.

• Is the pollution effecting their habitat?

• They have existed on the earth for over 300 million years.

• We started out knowing 6,300 known species, and have lost at least 168 in the last two decades.

• There are many pigments of amphibian skin. All these pigments have different meanings. All colors are to help with predators. Some colors help hide the amphibian, while other colors help warn the predator.

• A Siberian salamander lived to be 90 years old. That is the oldest age recorded for any animal it’s size!

Uniqueness of Amphibians

Skeletal

• They have a back bone, webbed feet- no claws, attached limbs at shoulders and hips.

• Frogs/toads- legs shorter, weaker, rear legs is stronger so its easier for them to leap.

Frog Evolution and Skeleton

Unique Facts of Amphibians

• These little creatures inspire many pieces of artwork.

• They are the evolutionary step between water and land animals. Amphibian means both sides of life.

• Amphibians go through aestivation. Aestivation is “frog hibernation”. They go underground in hot summer months and cold winter months to prevent losing their moisture.

Oh my gosh! Time for me to come out of

aestivation!

Respiration

•They extract oxygen from the air and water. They use gills, oral epithelium, and cutaneous respiration. Cutaneous respiration is breathing through the skin. Oxygen is absorbed through counteraction of blood and waterflow.

•Tadpoles breathe through skin with the help of external (Urodela) and internal (Anura) gills and/or with the help of lungs.

•All amphibians have lungs except for the lungless salamander and Onychodactylus.

FROG RESPIRATION

Scroll down on website to watch video

Reproduction of Anura

• They usually mate during rainy times or in water.

• At night they get together in large groups to find partners.

• Fertilization takes place outside female body.

Reproduction of Urodela • Fertilization takes

place inside the female body.

• They lay eggs one at a time

•The eggs are usually hatched in moisture.

salamandersFrogs

Reproduction

• They slowly lose gills and develop lungs.

• Tad poles get there hind legs before the front legs.

• Eyes, digestive system and other organs undergo changes to prepare for life

• They have no shells, its jelly like

• The eggs are usually left unguarded, but some frogs do keep their eggs until they hatch.

• Tadpoles/ polliwogs = frogs and toads

Amplexus

• Amplexus is when the male frog grasps the female frog between his front legs, while she lays her eggs. He then fertilizes the eggs with sperm fluid.

• Frog Reproduction Video

Amphibian Nervous System

Amphibian Nervous System

• The nervous system is a very simple structure. The brain is divided into five sections: the spinal cord, hind brain, mid brain, cerebellum, and forebrain. The forebrain has two parts: diencephalon and telencephalon.

• The Medulla has automatic functions as a normal mammal brain. The cerebellum controls posture and muscles. The cerebellum is also very small in amphibians, but large in mammals.

Comparison of Nervous Systems

Sensory Structures

• Nostrils are one sensory structure. There are two simple holes. The smell is registered by olfactory lobes. Olfactory lobes make up the front part of the brain.

• Eyes are another sensory structure. They have three eyelids. Amphibians have a fixed lenses and can not change focus.

• Amphibians have no external ear.

Circulatory System

• A three-chambered heart pumps blood through the circulatory system which carries oxygen, nutrients, and carries away waste products.

• Amphibians are cold-blooded.

Excretory System

• Excretion of liquid wastes produced in the liver come from the kidneys which goes to the ureters. Following this path it goes onto the bladder and out of the body.

• Excretion of solid wastes comes through the large intestine, then onto the cloaca. (an opening to allow such things to move through)

• Both wastes leave through the cloaca and the cloacavent.

An Inside look at Amphibians…

Digestive system• Digestive system

consist of intestine, stomach and mouth.

• The food is mixed and partially broken down into stomach.

• The digesting takes place in the small intestine, than it gets absorbed.

• They have two large glands- liver and pancreas pour digestive juices into small intestine.

• Cloaca- Chamber that opens to outside of the body.

• The eggs, sperm, waste products pass through the cloaca.

Amphibians are biomonitors?• If environment is polluted,

amphibians life cycle will be messed up because they breathe with their skin.(cutaneous respiration) Amphibians, “can be used as environmental sentinels or biomonitors and act as an early warning system for the quality of the environment and the potential threats to other animals including ourselves.”

Amphibians

Watch Year of the Frog Campaign video on hyperlink

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