Frog and toad | Types, Habitat, Diet, & Characteristics (2024)

Size range and diversity of structure

Although all frogs are readily recognizable, there are great varieties of sizes and of structural modifications. Many frogs are tiny animals; perhaps the smallest is the Brazilian Psyllophryne didactyla, adults of which measure 9.8 mm (0.4 inch) or less in body length (with legs drawn in). However, the West African goliath frog, Conraua goliath, has a body length of nearly 300 mm (12 inches). Many frogs and toads have smooth moist skins. Toads of the genus Bufo are familiar as “warty” amphibians, the skin being highly glandular and covered with tubercles (small, round nodules). Frogs of many other families have rough tubercular skins, usually an adaptation for life in the less humid environments. The opposite extreme is found in the small arboreal (tree-dwelling) frogs of the tropical American family Centrolenidae, in which the skin on the underside is so thin and transparent that the heart and viscera can be seen through the skin. In most species, cutaneous gas exchange (that is, breathing through the skin) supplements the oxygen taken in by the lungs; however, the lungless Barbourula kalimantanensis of Borneo obtains all its oxygen through its skin.

Pronounced structural differences between species can also appear in the head. Whereas the head in many species is smooth and rounded, some species diverge from this pattern. The skull of the Malayan leaf frog (Megophrys nasuta) has evolved to mimic the shape and texture of leaf litter on the forest floor. The head of the banded horned tree frog (Hemiphractus fasciatus) is triangular with hard bony hornlike processes above its eyes and near the rear of its skull. Likewise, the shovel-headed tree frog (Triprion spatulatus) has a wide skull that shields the rest of its body from attack, whereas disc frogs (Synapturanus) have developed pointed snouts that aid in burrowing.

Most frogs move by leaping. The long and powerful hind limbs are straightened rapidly from the crouching position, propelling the frog through the air. Many arboreal frogs—especially members of the families Hylidae, Rhacophoridae, Centrolenidae, and others—have adhesive disks on the ends of the fingers and toes and leap from branch to branch or from leaf to leaf (see tree frog). The families Bufonidae, Rhinophrynidae, and Microhylidae and certain burrowing species in other families have relatively short hind limbs and move forward by series of short hops. Some bufonids actually walk instead of hop. Highly modified members of the hylid subfamily Phyllomedusinae have opposable digits on the hands and feet and walk slowly along branches, deliberately grasping the branch in the manner of tiny lemurs. Many kinds of frogs have membranous webbing between the fingers and toes; in the aquatic species, the webbing on the feet aids in swimming. The extreme in this specialization is seen in the aquatic family Pipidae. Members of that family normally never leave the water. In regions of the Earth subjected to long dry periods, frogs must seek cover to avoid desiccation; they have behavioral and structural adaptations to conserve water.

Although many frogs are unimpressively coloured, some species are brilliantly marked. The most common colours are brown, gray, green, and yellow. Uniformly coloured frogs are the exception rather than the rule. The markings of a frog may seem bold when observed out of the natural habitat, but they usually are concealing or visually disruptive when the frog is in its environment (see below coloration).

Distribution and abundance

Because of their morphological and physiological adaptations, frogs are able to inhabit most regions of the world except the extremely cold landmasses at high latitudes and some oceanic islands that they have been unable to colonize because of the barriers provided by salt water. Frogs live in desert regions below sea level and in montane areas up to elevations above 4,560 metres (15,000 feet). Some members of the genus Rana live north of the Arctic Circle. Although widely distributed on Earth, frogs are most diverse and abundant in the tropics, and five or six of the 28 families are restricted to the tropics. In most temperate areas of the world, the number of species of frogs at any one locality is usually fewer than 10, but in the tropics, especially in rainforests, the number of species is much greater. At one locality in the upper Amazon basin in eastern Ecuador, 83 species are known to occur, about the same number as is known for all of the United States.

In a complex environment such as a tropical rainforest, the large number of species of frogs partition the environmental resources in a variety of ways. In the humid tropics, frogs can be active throughout the year, but many species are seasonal in their breeding activity. Various kinds of sites and different seasons are used for calling and egg laying; such temporal and spatial separation avoids interspecific competition. Frogs feed mostly on insects and other invertebrates, and the abundance of food in tropical rainforests probably places no competitive restrictions on this aspect of environmental resources. Some large species eat vertebrates, including small rodents and other frogs.