Page 72 - Amphibian

Glossary

ADAPT To change in order to improve
or make more fit for a particular purpose

ADHESIVE DISKS Pads containing
a sticky mucus that help frogs stick
to surfaces such as a trees
AMPHIBIAN Any vertebrate of the class
Amphibia. Amphibians are cold-blooded,
smooth-skinned animals that usually hatch
as aquatic larvae. They breathe by means
of gills in the early stages of life and change
into an adult form with air-breathing lungs
in the later stages of life.
AMPLEXUS In certain amphibians, the
clasping of the female tightly by the male
during mating

AQUATIC Refers to anything that lives
or grows in the water

ARBOREAL Refers to anything that lives
or grows mainly or entirely in trees A camouflaged Amazonian leaf-litter toad
CAMOUFLAGE The use of colors and EGG WRAPPING In newts, the act of
patterns that blend in with surroundings; immediately covering a single laid egg with
used by animals to hide from predators a leaf, to hide it from predators and possibly
protect it from environmental damage
CANNIBALISM The act of eating
a member of one’s own species; engaged ENDANGERED Refers to any species
in by some amphibian species in danger of extinction throughout all
or a significant portion of its natural range
CARTILAGE A smooth, durable
connective tissue that covers and cushions ENDEMIC Occurring naturally in
the ends of bones and allows joints to move a particular place
The aroboreal easily without pain. Cartilage is found
European tree frog in many parts of a skeleton. EYE ORBIT The bony cavity in the skull
that contains the eyeball
AXOLOTL A larval
salamader found in the EYESPOT In some frogs, a pair
mountain lakes of Mexico; of glandular markings on the flanks
usually lives out its life resembling eyes that are usually covered
without metamorphosing by the thighs when the frog is at rest. If the
frog is threatened, it can expose the eyespots
BEHAVIORAL DISPLAY CLOACA in some to startle an enemy.
A physical display exhibited by an animal Axolotl animals, a single
in a specific situation; for example, when opening used to get rid FILAMENT A
it is threatened by a predator trying of waste products from the gut and slender, threadlike
to attract a mate bladder, also part of the female object
reproductive system
BURROW A hole or a tunnel in the
ground made by an animal to provide COCOON In certain
shelter. Sometimes different species burrowing frogs, a wrapping,
of amphibians will burrow together. formed by shedding the outer
layer of skin, that cuts down
CAECILIANS Any of the small, slender, on water loss in times of
limbless burrowing amphibians of the order extreme drought
Gymnophiona. Most of these wormlike
animals inhabit moist soil in tropical regions. EGG CLUTCH A batch
of a few large amphibian eggs
CALIFORNIA NEWT A large (as opposed to an egg mass)
salamander with warty skin that is not slimy
to the touch, with light brown to black EGG MASS A batch of many small
markings on an orange or yellow body amphibian eggs
Egg mass

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