Many people confuse frogs and toads, and not everyone can, having seen one of these animals, unequivocally say which of these categories it belongs to. They are very similar and belong to the class of amphibians. However, at the same time, they belong to different types and have significant differences.
Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary says that a frog, unlike a toad, has long hind legs, specially adapted for jumping, and a toad has skin with warts. In fact, everything is not so simple. Biology knows many more differences.
The frog is an amphibian (amphibian) of the Anura order, the name of which can be translated from Greek as "tailless". Science knows more than five thousand species of frogs, many of them are endangered.
Frogs are able to breathe through the skin, so it always retains moisture. They are smooth and slippery to the touch, with elongated legs with membranes and a short body. These amphibians move on land in large leaps.
The frog roe looks like lumps of mucus that float on the surfaces of water bodies. From this eggs, tadpoles are born that live only under water. Only when the frog grows limbs, and becomes a reduced copy of an adult, does it begin to come ashore. Frogs lay a large number of eggs, some species - up to twenty thousand.
The toad is usually the larger tailless animal of the amphibian class. To date, more than 250 varieties are known, some reaching a length of 20 centimeters.
Toads have a dense constitution, shorter limbs in proportion to that of a frog, and thick, bumpy skin with venom glands scattered over it. Behind the eyes are large glands - parotids. They produce a poisonous substance that is harmless to humans.
The eggs of the toad are laid in the form of long cords lying on the bottom or braiding the stems of plants. Their tadpoles, as a rule, also live at the bottom. During the year, the toad lays from 4 to 12 thousand eggs. At the same time, in a number of species, males perform the key function in preparing eggs for hatching.
Some toads live in temperate climates, some in tropical climates. The former are usually olive or brown in color, the latter are usually brighter.
It is also worth noting that toads spend more time in water than on land - on the contrary, they only need water for reproduction. Toads also do not have teeth, and many frogs have them.
