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Frogs are small cold-blooded animals that belong to the vertebrate group, known as amphibians. They spend part of their life in the water, and the other part of it on land. The frog's skin absorbs the water for them, so they don't have to actually drink water in order to live. The frog's hind legs are long and powerful, so that the frog can jump long distances, while their front legs are shorter and used only to prop the frog upright when it's sitting. The largest frog in the world is the Goliath Frog which can grow to over a foot long, while the smallest frog is the Cuban Pygmy Frog which only gets to about a half an inch long. Frogs can breathe both through their lungs and also through their skin. Their heart contains 3 chambers instead of 4 like most animals. Frogs can be found almost anywhere, but tend to be in the warmer regions of the world as opposed to the colder ones. Some frogs, though, have adapted their bodies to live when it's below freezing weather. You usually find frogs near bodies of water, whether it's a lake, stream or ponds. Some frogs, though, never enter water. The frog's hind feet are webbed to help them swim, and some of them have sticky pads to help it climb up trees. Frogs mostly eat insects, and generally swallow them whole. Most frogs have a sticky tongue, which they uncurl and shoot out of their mouth in order to catch their prey. When a frog becomes the prey, they have their own unique protection. Many frogs secrete a kind of poison that prevent predators from getting too close. The bright colours you see on many frogs are a warning to other animals that they are poisonous. Frogs with brown or green colouring use camouflage as their nummber one defense. Frogs start out as eggs which hatch rapidly after being laid. They are then called tadpoles or polliwogs, but have little to no resemblence to a frog at all. The tadpoles develop into frogs after a different amount of time, depending on the species of frog. |