How do tadpoles turn into frogs?

Contents

Frog:

  • Frogs belong to the kingdom Animalia and order Anura.
  • Basically adult frogs are known to live in fresh water and on land, however some are specially adapted to live underground or in trees.

Frogs are known to lay their eggs in the pool or water body. The larvae of frogs are known as tadpoles. The question is how do tadpoles turn into a frog?

The process responsible for the change of tadpole to frog is known as metamorphosis.

The different stages of metamorphosis are:

  • Frogspawn- The 1 week of tadpoles when the eggs are laid. It takes about 2-3 weeks time on average for an egg to hatch.
  • Hatchling tadpole- The egg hatched on the 2-3 week is still invisible and weak. It survives on the remaining jelly from the egg to gain some energy.
  • Swimming tadpole- After the time span of almost 4 weeks, or 1 week after hatchling, tadpoles now have enough strength to swim and to lookout for food. Mostly Algae.
  • Toothed Tadpole- With few more weeks to add, tadpole now has developed a digestive system to allow it to have some insects as it’s diet with presence of teeth also.
  • Tadpole with legs and tail- 5 Weeks after hatchling, there will be new development in tadpole with the legs growing. Back legs especially grow earlier than front legs.
  • Froglet- Now at the time period of almost 14 weeks after the hatching of the egg, tadpoles can be seen as small frogs and now have developed lungs. Which means it can come to land now and can be changed from tadpole to frog or froglet.
  • Young Frog- Now at this point, the tail has also disappeared providing the frog with its nutrients. This can be said as a proper time period for a tadpole to be changed with frog at about the period of 16 weeks.
  • A young adult frog will then live on land for a few years and will return back to the water body to find a mate and to again lay eggs.

Fun Facts:

  1. When listening to the name of frog, we get the pet type feeling, however some species of frogs are known to be poisonous.
  2. Frogs are known to absorb water through their skin or in other words they are known to drink water through their skin.
  3. Frogs have almost 6000 different types of species across the globe.

Related Questions:

  1. What is the general habitat of frogs in the wild?
  2. Who all are the prey of frogs?
  3. What are the characteristic features of frogs?

True or False:

  1. Frogs belong to the order Anura.
  2. Frogs can live on land only.
  3. The eggs laid by frogs take about 1 day to hatch.
  4. The young frog still needs to live in water for a few more days.
  5. The tadpole can be changed into a frog within a 2 weeks time period.

Objective Quiz:

1. Adult frogs are known to live in______.

  1. Fresh water.
  2. Underground.
  3. In a tree.
  4. All of the above.

2. For an egg to hatch, it takes about ______.

  1. 1-2 weeks.
  2. 2-3 weeks.
  3. 3-4 weeks.
  4. None of the above.

3. The process of the tadpoles to change into frogs is known as ________.

  1. Metamorphosis.
  2. Megamorphosis.
  3. Mitamosphosis.
  4. None of the above.

4. Froglet has fully developed ______.

  1. Lungs.
  2. Heart.
  3. Brain.
  4. Body.

5. The ______ of tadpole is absorbed by the frog till the end of the process for nutritional purposes.

  1. Tail.
  2. Skin.
  3. Jelly.
  4. None of the above.

Related Articles

Responses

For Worksheets & PrintablesJoin Now
+