Frog's Life
Frogs are just one type of amphibian. The life cycle of a frog begins with the first stage as a fertilized egg also known as spawn. The female frog can either have live birth or lay the eggs on land or in the water (Guenther, 2015). Then, the cycle moves to the second stage of a baby frog or tadpole. Tadpoles are water-based because they have not grown legs or arms to help them out of the water (a-z animals, 2015a). The tadpole then develops legs, losing the tail and gills and can climb onto land, which makes it an immature frog or nymph (Guenther, 2015). The final stage is when an immature frog matures enough to begin mating and is classified as an adult frog. The adult frog is the last stage of a frog’s development through its life cycle. The last stage is also when adult frogs begin the cycle over, having their own spawn and creating a new generation.
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Developmental and Growth Stages
Out of the near hundreds of eggs laid, only about one or two will completely reach adulthood (Cleave, 1999). Frogs go through incomplete metamorphosis, which means, instead of going through four stages, they only go through three. The three stages they go through are egg or unborn, then tadpole and ending with adult. The stages of development are also known as the life cycle. For a frog the life cycle starts at the egg, also referred to as the unborn (Reference Library, 2012). The egg is fertilized and then laid by the female frog, and then the eggs will grow into a tadpole, which is also the young stage of the cycle.
Tadpole
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The development of the embryo or tadpole starts with the division of the ovum that forms countless numbers of cells. The ovum, or egg, then forms an oval shape, which also begins to look like the head and tail of the tadpole (Cleave, 1999). Tadpoles do not have arms and legs until they become adolescence. At this point, they are all head, tail and gills. As the tail grows longer, the legs develop, becoming stronger and growing longer. Eventually the arms appear as the tail gets short; at this point the tadpole is about five to six days old (Cleave, 1999). This is when the tadpole will resemble a small frog. As the mouth forms, so do the lungs and the gills are not as important, because the froglet will now begin spending time on land, later moving off to a habitat they can spend their adult life in (Cleave, 1999). “Tadpoles will develop from egg to frog in two or three months, if conditions are fairly stable,” also meaning they go through rapid metamorphosis (Cleave, 1999, p. 43). The end of the life cycle for a frog is its adulthood, where it can now begin making a new life cycle and generation of frogs.
Learn more about the frog's life cycle by clicking the button to the right.
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