Amphibians for Kids What is an amphibian Learn the characteristics of amphibians

amphibians have you ever sorted some of your things into different groups maybe you sort clothes by color or style or your video games by category scientists do the same thing with animals and other objects all animals including humans have few things in common they are living organisms they need food and energy to survive move and grow and they create more of their own which means they have babies though they have lot in common there are also many differences between animals when you see an insect like mosquito or butterfly you know that it's different than fish you also know that cougar is different from snake because of these differences all animals are classified or separated into special groups some of these special groups include mammals or animals with hair reptiles or creatures that have dry scaly skin birds who have feathers and wings and fish that have gills and live in the water some other groups that animals are classified in include warm-blooded cold-blooded vertebrates invertebrates and living on land versus living in water humans live on land even though you can swim take shower and jump into the ocean you cannot live and survive in the water because you need oxygen to breathe you can only survive on land fish are the opposite they cannot live on the land like you they can only survive in the water but did you know that there is one group of animals that can live both on land and in water this group is called amphibians in fact the greek word for amphibian means double life or two lives there are about seven thousand species of amphibians living in the world today that can survive in the water and on land you are probably familiar with some of these amphibians can you think of some amphibians that you might recognize here's hint think of some animals that are green and often slimy did you think of toads salamanders newts or frogs if you did you're right they are amphibians you probably already know some things about frogs and toads but did you know that there are many different types of both have you heard of the american bullfrog or the poison dart frog what about the american toad or the tomato toad did you know that there are around 2 000 different species of toads and frogs in our world kind of makes you wonder where they're all hiding sometimes it's easy to mix up frog and tote here's how you can tell them apart as adults frogs have smooth moist skin and longer legs than toads while toads have dry bumpy skin and short legs because they walk more often than they jump although toads and frogs are different they are both amphibians because they have some things in common so what makes an animal fit into the amphibian category well it's simple they each have characteristics that are the same like webbed feet they also have backbones called vertebrates just like you do but their backbones are much smaller than humans every group of animals have certain characteristics in common some of those characteristics are included in other groups too like humans and amphibians both having vertebrates or backbones however because humans are warm-blooded and amphibians are cold-blooded they cannot be in the same group even though they do share something in common cold-blooded means that an amphibian's body temperature changes if it's 60 degrees in the air or the water where they're living then their bodies adapt and also becomes 60 degrees if it's 40 degrees then they adapt to that temperature too that's different than being warm-blooded humans are warm-blooded that means that no matter what the temperature is outside inside our bodies the temperature always stays the same or 98.6 degrees the only time it changes is when we are sick and our temperature goes little up or down another trait of the amphibian group is that part of their life is spent on land while the other part is spent in the water they can breathe using gills while in the water just like fish however unlike fish they later grow lungs and legs which help them live on land kind of cool another thing that sets amphibians apart is their skin this is where the slimy part comes in while slimy might seem gross to us it's very important part of being an amphibian adult amphibians must stay near the water to keep their skin wet an interesting fact about amphibians is they don't drink their water it's actually absorbed through their skin and did you know that frogs can't live in salt water the salt could possibly poison their insides as well as dehydrate them since their skin needs to stay moist all amphibians come from soft eggs that kind of look like jelly they go through process called metamorphosis which basically means they morph or change into something else as time passes when amphibians are newly born they look like fish with tails and gills after little while they become tadpoles with two legs the tadpoles change again and develop two more legs as well as tail they look like small version of frog only with tail finally they become full grown frog though all amphibians have common characteristics frogs and toads lose their tails when they reach adulthood while salamanders and newts keep their tails when they become adults salamanders and nudes look like lizards without scales cool fact about newts and salamander is if they lose limb it will regenerate which means it will grow back now that's pretty amazing another species of amphibian is called sicilian sicilians do not have arms or legs they use their pointed noses and strong skulls to burrow through mud they look like worms or snakes maybe even bit scarier especially since some of them grow to be over 4 feet long amphibians live in wide range of habitats they can be found in or around streams forests meadows ponds lakes swamps and other damp or wet areas their diet includes spiders beetles and worms some frogs have long sticky tongue they flick to catch flies moths and other insects amphibians come in all sizes too the goliath frog can grow to be 15 inches long and weigh 8 pounds that's as big as my cat while the smallest frog in the world is only about third of an inch long that's about as wide as your pinky finger on the other hand the chinese giant salamander can be six feet long and weigh hundred and forty pounds can you imagine seeing that in swamp amphibians are interesting animals with some neat facts did you know that some salamanders keep their gills and that frogs swallow their food whole there's much more that can be learned about these fascinating animals so don't stop here the next time you are near some water see if you can spot some of these incredible creatures we call amphibians thanks for following clarendon learning be sure to subscribe for more free resources check us out at clarendonlearning.org