Frogs are a perfect example of a group of animals called amphibians. Amphibians live their lives in two habitats. For example, the frog in the early stages of its life lives n water as tadpoles and later when they grow they migrate and live on the land. The frogs can also be termed as cold-blooded animals since their body temperature fluctuates and depends on the temperature of the environment in which they live (Cogger, 2014). The frogs belong to a kingdom called Animalia.
Image of a frog
The habitat of the frog is usually near ponds since they lay their eggs in ponds. The eggs of the frogs are laid in clumps. Once the eggs hatch into tadpoles, the tadpoles cling onto the weeds of the ponds. The tadpole majorly fees on algae and through various stages, it develops into an adult frog that leaves the pond. The frog is an ectoderm since its temperature is determined by the external environment. Since the frogs are carnivores, they feed on meat. Frogs that are medium and small in size feed on mosquitoes, moths, and flies. Frogs that are large feed on worms and grasshoppers. Some large frogs also feed on small snakes, small turtles, small mice and even small frogs (Harding & Mifud, 2017). In the environment, frogs have a major role. They help humans to control insects while they are a source of food for many large animals. Phylogenetic relationship illustrates the durations in the past where various animals shared ancestors. Using the phylogenetic tree, the toad is the closely related animal to the frog.
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The body of the frog has various organs. The liver is the largest organ in the cavity of the frog's body. The liver is divided into various lobes and its brown. It makes bile which the frog uses to digest fat. The heart is another organ found in a frog. It appears to be triangular in nature. It serves as a pump since it pumps blood to all body parts of the frog. The toad also has spongy lungs that allow it to breathe by simply inhaling into them and exhaling thus enabling gaseous exchange. The bile that the frog uses to digest fats is stored in a sac-like organ called the gallbladder.
The stomach of a frog is a curved organ. Its sole responsibility is to facilitate chemical digestion since the frog does not chew the food it swallows but rather swallows it as a whole. In addition, the small intense is another organ found in frogs. It is coiled and involved in the adsorption of the digested nutrients. The large intestine is involved in the removal of sperms, urine, and wastes from the frog's body. The kidneys, which are organs that appear to be been shaped, remove wastes from the blood of the frog through glomerulofiltration. Another important organ is the skin which is moist and thin. It protects the internal structures of the toad. It also serves as one of the organs that the toad uses in respiration (Harding & Mifsud, 2017).
The frog has evolved in various ways thus adapting to its environment. For swimming, the frogs have feet that are webbed. Swimming is also facilitated by their hind limbs which are long. These hind limbs also aid the frog to leap onto land. The position of the nostrils and eyes of the frog are in such a way that they remain above the water as the frog swims. The frogs sense the vibrations present in water using an area on their back that is sensitive. A frog can also change its color to resemble that of its environment. During the tadpole stage of its life, the frog uses gills to breathe. As the tadpole develops into an adult frog, the lungs replace the gills enabling the frog to breathe on land (Sillero et al., 2014). There is a layer of slime that covers the skin of the frog which helps it dissolve oxygen that is present in the water and air. The skin of the frog is thin with many blood vessels which adsorb oxygen onto them.
Transferring the frog to a different environment will lead to certain changes. The skin color of the frog will change with regard to the color of that new environment. When the frogs are exposed to environments which have chemicals, since their skin is able to absorb the chemicals due to its thin nature, some of the frogs die while others migrate to areas that their environment is not intoxicated. When an environment changes, some of the organs will be strained causing the impaired function of some organs (Cogger, 2014). For example, if the frog is in a tadpole stage and it is breathing through the gills, if the water is polluted, the breathing through the gills will still occur but will not be as effective as it is supposed to be.
If a frog that lives on land is taken to a swampy area, then the gaseous exchange will still go on since the lungs are what are used to breathe. On the other hand, if a tadpole is taken to an area that is dry, then since the gaseous exchange is through the gills. If a tadpole is taken to a dry land, its skin will be bruised thus reducing the preventive role of the skin (Harding & Mifud, 2017). If the frog is taken to an ecosystem where there are no insects and meat to feed on, then the frog will not be able to get nutrients to facilitate its leaving. Therefore, for a frog, the conditions that exist around the frog determine its life. If the conditions become so adverse then the frog will die especially if it is in the tadpole stage.
The frog which is an amphibian plays a key role in the environment. The frog has various structures and organs that are key to its life. Changes in the environment have serious effects on the frog depending on the stage of development of the frog. The frog is an animal that is studied a lot when learning about environmental changes.
References
Cogger, H. (2014). Reptiles and amphibians of Australia . Csiro Publishing.
Harding, J. H., & Mifsud, D. A. (2017). Amphibians and reptiles of the Great Lakes region . University of Michigan Press.
Sillero, N., Campos, J., Bonardi, A., Corti, C., Creemers, R., Crochet, P. A., ... & Kuzmin, S. (2014). Updated distribution and biogeography of amphibians and reptiles of Europe. Amphibia-Reptilia , 35 (1), 1-31.
