Welcome to the world of amphibians!
Mouse studying pond life
Have you ever gone to a pond and seen tadpoles? Have you ever caught a toad in your garden? Have you ever watched the newts at a pet store? These are all examples of amphibians, a class of animals that start out living in water and breathing with gills but end up developing lungs!
The word amphibian comes from two Greek words: amphi and bios. Amphi means double and bios means life. Therefore, amphibian means double life. The reason amphibians are called “double life” is because when they hatch the babies have gills and when they grow up they lose their gills and have lungs.
The same word is used for other things, too. An amphibious vehicle can operate in two different environments, just like a frog. An amphibious airplane can fly but also land on water and be used as a boat. Here is an example of an amphibious airplane. It is used for putting out forest fires.
Another kind of amphibious vehicle is the car that turns into a boat.
There are many kinds of amphibians in the wild. They are slimy and interesting because they start out like a fish and end up kind of like a lizard. They serve many important roles in the environment and for humans. But did you know that they are almost all in danger from a serious disease spreading rapidly through the whole world?
I hope you enjoy this edition of The Science Mouse and learn lots more about amphibians! You can also download a copy in pdf form. If you find any amphibians in your yard, do any artwork or try the garden project, I would love to see pictures! You can send them to me at thesciencemouseATgmailDOTcom and I will share them through my Reader Gallery. Here are the articles in this issue.
Welcome to the world of amphibians!
Why should we care about amphibians?
Biologists study the endangered tiger salamander
How to attract toads to your garden
Hi, Mouse!
I think you will like this website about frogs and toads in Missouri. It gives a map of where each frog can be found and also has recorded calls of each frog:
http://www.MissouriConservation.org/19246
We took a trip to a stream after it rained in the hopes of seeing frogs and toads. We couldn’t find ANY, despite careful looking. The next time we were out, we saw at least a hundred of these big tadpoles and even some frogs:
http://homeschoolnetc.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-is-frog-that-never-ends-it-goes-on.html
If you don’t see what you’re looking for on one day, we learned, try again some other time when the weather is different! We saw the tadpoles and frogs on a sunny day.