About Tailed, Tailless And Legless Amphibians

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 22:49

In recent years, pet lovers have increasingly taken home not traditional cats and dogs and not even aquarium fish, but animals that are completely unaccustomed to us - amphibians, or - what is more understandable amphibians. They give birth to something, but they don't always know how to keep it. Who are they, amphibians?

We decided to help those lovers of living creatures who are with all their hearts disposed to tailed and tailless reptiles, and tell them about this wonderful class of the animal world. Let's start with taxonomy.

In everyday life, you can very often hear how unflattering people express their attitude to these animals, others are simply indifferent. Among the people, amphibians have never enjoyed much love. Fables have long been formed about them, which speak of a distrustful attitude towards them. But amphibians also have positive aspects.

Chaksky phyllomedusa (Phyllomedusa sauvagii)

Since ancient times, amphibians have been used in various fields of biology and medicine as laboratory animals. With the help of the frog, mankind became acquainted with electricity; its paw turned out to be a highly sensitive indicator. Luigi Galvani was the first to experiment on frogs, and then they became a familiar object of biological research. In Japan, a monument was erected to a frog.

Frog legs can be ordered at some of the world's most respectable restaurants. Frogs intended for table decoration are raised on special farms in Western Europe.

Adult amphibians in nature destroy a large number of insects - pests in gardens, parks, vegetable gardens, forests, meadows. They are not afraid to eat insects with an unpleasant smell and taste, which insectivorous birds disdain. In addition, amphibians hunt at night when the birds are sleeping.

Amphibians are food for various predatory animals (otters, minks, predatory fish). Tadpoles are also an important link in aquatic biocenoses. Eating a large mass of diatoms in green algae, they prevent the bloom of the reservoir, cleanse it.

It turns out that in the civilized world, biologists, doctors, gourmets and farmers sing praises to amphibians.

Lovers of terrariums and aquariums also do not neglect amphibians. Even a novice aquarist can see unpretentious newts, clawed frogs, and ambist.

To the class of amphibians, biologists use such epithets as "the smallest", "the most primitive of the terrestrial vertebrates," "the most ancient class of terrestrial animals."

Mysterious poison dart frog (Excidobates mysteriosus)

In total, there are 3400 modern species of amphibians on the globe, represented by 3 orders: tailed, tailless, legless.

Amphibians are much less widespread than other vertebrates. The largest number of species live in the tropics, in temperate latitudes there are fewer of them, and in Antarctica and the Arctic there are none at all. They avoid desert areas and high mountain areas.

The newt and the frog are very different in external structure for a reason. They belong to different groups. Newts - to tailed, frogs to tailless. And who belongs to the legless? This begs the question - after all, they are not passed in the school curriculum. You can bet that when you see a legless amphibian, you will say that this is an ordinary earthworm that has crossed the border of decency - it has grown to almost 0.5 m.

I will not exaggerate if I say that this is a very peculiar group of animals. Their appearance combines features of excellent adaptation to the environment and primitive structure. They lead an underground burrowing lifestyle, in connection with this they have no legs, the general shape of the body is worm-like. The skin is bare, very rich in glands, which abundantly moisten it with mucus. There is practically no tail and the cloaca opens right at the end of the body. The surface of their body is divided by annular interceptions into segments, although not all.

These animals move slowly in the ground through serpentine body twists. They feed on soil invertebrates. Fertilized eggs are laid in moist soil. Occasionally, adults wrap themselves around a clutch of eggs, and their body mucus keeps the eggs from drying out. The hatched larvae soon turn into adult animals in the water or here, in the soil.

The legless order contains only one family - the worms, and therefore these two taxonomic terms are often used interchangeably, being essentially synonyms. There are about 75 species in the family, distributed mainly in South America, tropical Africa and southern Asia.

The ringed worm is widespread in South America, its body length reaches 40 cm. It lives in humid places and buries itself in the ground to a depth of 50 cm.

In Asia, the Ceylon fish snake is widespread, its body is up to 40 cm. It stays in the ground along the banks of rivers and lakes at a depth of 20-30 cm. Its color is dark brown or blue with bright yellow longitudinal stripes on the sides of the body. Falling into the water, he dies.