Frogbloginning (Frog-blog-beginning)
It is time…
…for a frog blog. It feels like it’s been a good bit since I’ve last written one, and there’s still so many frogs to share! However, before we get into specific frogs, I figured I’d share a fun frog fact! Unlike other animals, frogs can see color in the dark. It’s one thing to have night vision, but being able to see color in extreme darkness is insane! You can read more about it here, which is where I learned this.
Turtle Frog (Myobatrachus gouldii)
LOOK AT THAT FACE. THAT SHAPE. An adorable specimen if I’ve ever seen one. As you may have guessed from the face, turtle frogs are a species of burrowing frog! Their methods of digging into soil face forward is what caused them to evolve their unique appearance. They also don’t hop, which I suspect may also be because of the whole burrowing thing. There are more frogs that don’t hop than you’d expect. Also, their main diet is termites!
Indian Bullfrog/Indus Valley Bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus)
“WHAT IS THAT?!” “Are those the same frog?!”
These are Indian bullfrogs, and the answer is yes! These beautiful babies have different appearances based on their respective sexes and seasons due to sexual dimorphism. When mating season comes around, male Indian bullfrogs adorn glamorous yellow coloration and purple/blue/they can’t decide(if you should live or die) vocal sacs! The yellow reminds of a dirty highlighter, but I say this as a loving basic observation. They look absolutely rad. The females remain the same brownish color all year, but they don’t need to impress- plus their eyes look as if they know all of your sins. These frogs also don’t stop growing their whole lives, and the females are typically larger than the males.
Horned Marsupial Frog (Gastrotheca cornuta)
Oh boy; these guys are practically on their own level of frog-existence. They also look adorable with their angular little faces and goat shaped eyes! However, the truly amazing thing about these fellas is that they’re the only species of frog with actual, true teeth on its lower jaw. Not fleshy stumps, not almost-teeth-but-lacking-enamel-so-they’re-not-really-teeth, actual teeth. What’s even more is that this species straight up re-evolved said set of lower jaw teeth, kicking Dollo’s law of irreversibility in the face and giving way to discovering how many frogs have evolved, lost, and re-evolved teeth in the past. This isn’t even the end of ride, either. Female horned marsupial frogs carry their eggs in a pouch on their backs, and these eggs hatch as fully-formed frogs. They also don’t hop and make a ‘bop’ noise. I love them. Horribly, they’re endangered due to a myriad of human-related issues and chytridiomycosis disease, which affects frogs worldwide.
Frogblogending (Frog-blog-ending)
I had a lot of fun writing this post! Then again, It’s hard to not have fun reading about these cool little guys while looking at pictures of them for research. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know the marsupial frog even existed until recently! This was a great opportunity to spend some time learning about it.
I enjoyed reading about frogs. This reminded me of two things. 1. a couple years ago my cousins came down from california for July 4th. The entire family line (basically) was at my one cousins house and as everyone was shooting fireworks, my cousins and I were messing around with frogs. I might write a blog about this.
I forgot to put the second thing lol. The second thing was that my dog likes to eat frogs. She’s weird.
Why… why would you tell me this, Georgia… those poor frogs man!
Where did you get these pictures of me Amelia?!
I summoned them, but Google is an option too!
you describe frogs with such admiration I love it like they’re little creatures
I really enjoyed learning about more of these fascinating creatures. I also want to say, that if I were to see that Turtle frog in person, I would not know what to do with myself. Then it doesn’t hop? I can’t.
I am using these to fight my phobia of frogs, almost shed a tear seeing the first one but we’re working on it.