What is the difference between a toad and a frog? The similarity of frogs and toads

Many people do not even suspect that the words "toad" and "frog" are not synonymous, but designate two different animals. Although there is a similarity between them, and not a little. After all, it's all the same relatives - amphibians, that is, amphibians. They appeared in one era, in Devon, about 385 million years ago. Then on our planet conditions appeared for the living creatures to come out of the water on land and begin to master it. So there were amphibians, the detachment Anura. Infantry and childhood they spend in the water, and then live on land. After all, the gills of a tadpole change over time with the lungs of an adult animal. But how does a frog differ from a frog? Let's study this question.

Difference in appearance

Both toads and frogs refer to cold-blooded vertebrates. Anura, the name of the detachment, is translated from Greek as "tailless". Thus it is indicated that in adults the part of the body that is present in tadpoles disappears. In general, this group includes more than 5 250 species of toads and frogs. Some of them combine the features of two animals. But scientists also classify such species, which are called "true toads" and "true frogs". This is a kind of standard for establishing the differences between two animals. The first thing that distinguishes a frog from a frog is a more squat body and a short head. She does not jump, but clumsily moves with all four paws, while the frog repels by the back. The toad has a dry, bumpy skin. The frog is always wet to the touch. This is because, along with the nasal opening, it can also breathe through the skin. In general, frogs in appearance are more graceful, deft, with an elongated silhouette. Toad some people are squeamish to take in hands: they are too warty.

Difference in habitat

Let's see where they live. In this sense, it is easy to determine the difference between a toad and a frog. The latter always needs a pond. Despite the fact that the frogs get to the ground, they do not go far from the pond or the quiet creek of the river. Toads are found in forests, fields, meadows, steppes and even deserts. During the breeding season, they go a long way - sometimes several kilometers to get to the pond and lay eggs there. But in ordinary life, toads live in burrows that are digging in the ground. There they winter. And even at water bodies frogs and toads behave differently. The first, lying on the belly, lie in the water or at the very edge of it. And toads sit, hiding, on the shore. However, there are also tree frogs. Thanks to suckers on the fingers, they can masterfully creep through the trees.

Difference in the pattern of nutrition

Even more than a toad from a frog, it's a way of life. Green inhabitants of ponds and lakes are most active during the day. In the evening they arrange a loud "roll call", after which they fall asleep. Toads go hunting in the evening. Scraping in the grass, they find there insects, slugs, butterflies. People should be grateful to the frogs, if only because they absorb mosquitoes in large numbers. Hunt and toads, and frogs alike - with the help of a long tongue, sticky at the tip. The movement of the capture of the booty takes place so lightly that the human eye can not grasp it. A moment - and already the toad again sits motionless. By the way, these amphibians eat even those caterpillars and bugs, which birds abhor. Therefore, they can be called true assistants gardener-gardener. But the toad, unlike the frog, has no teeth at all. And the last they do not need - because they are located only on the upper jaw.

The difference between a frog and a frog is in the way of reproduction

Of course, the vast majority of amphibians multiply by laying eggs. For this they need water. But the laying of eggs in toads and frogs is different in appearance. If you see a bubble mass on the surface of the pond, similar to jelly, be sure: this frog was laid by frogs. Toads lay eggs like a cord. Its end they are wound on seaweed. Sometimes it seems that this branch of an underwater plant is wobbling along the stream. So toads save their future offspring from fish. And some species act even like this: a female lays eggs with a cord that reels up on her husband's paw. He sits in an earthen pit and waits for an hour when he should hatch tadpoles. Only then he moves to the pond. A species of toad, which lives in Latin America, wears masonry in special cavities filled with liquid, on its back. And one more difference of a toad from a frog: at the first there are in the back part of a skull special parotid glands - parotidy. There, the animal accumulates poison, which makes it unattractive to predators.

The similarity of frogs and toads

These traits, related to two animals, very much. They belong to the category of cold-blooded animals, amphibians. They live on land and in water. They have paws on their paws. Both those and others lay eggs, from which tadpoles are born. Young growth is practically indistinguishable from each other. Only when tadpoles fall off the tail and paws grow, young toads leave the pond and rush into the depths of the forest, while the frogs stay near the lake. The period of development of eggs and the duration of childhood also coincide. But the statement that the earthy coloring is the main difference between a toad and a frog is incorrect. The colors of these animals can be completely different. In the tropics there are toads of very bright color, although in our latitudes they are indeed brownish-gray or olive-colored.

Myths about toads and frogs

There are many false assumptions about what a frog is different from a frog. For example, the first is much larger than the second. It is not true. There are very large frogs. For example, Goliath, found in West Africa, weighs about three kilograms, and reaches a length of 90 centimeters.

It is also untrue to claim that toads are poisonous, whereas frogs are absolutely harmless. It depends on the species. For example, a toad and a frog of a coco are capable of killing a person with one touch of their own. But our toads in their glands develop a secret of bufotein, which causes profuse salivation in animals that have tried to bite into an amphibian, but not harmful to human health.