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This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (July 2007) |
For other uses, see Amphibian (disambiguation).
| Amphibians Fossil range: Late Devonian - Recent | ||||||||||
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 Western Spadefoot Toad, Spea hammondii | ||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
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Order Temnospondyli - extinct |
Amphibians (class Amphibia; from Greek αμφις "both" and βιος "life") are a taxon of animals that include all living tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) that do not have amniotic eggs, are ectothermic (term for the animals whose body heat is regulated by the external environment; previously known as cold-blooded), and generally spend part of their time on land. Most amphibians do not have the adaptations to an entirely terrestrial existence found in most other modern tetrapods (amniotes). There are around 6,200 described, living species of amphibians. The study of amphibians and reptiles is known as herpetology. Amphibians are able to breathe by using lungs or gills or through their skin.Amphibians - Respiratory System at the Canadian Lung Association
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Traditionally the amphibians have included all tetrapods that are not amniotes. They are divided into three subclasses, of which two are only known as extinct subclasses:
Of these only the last subclass includes recent species.
With the cladistic revolution, this classification has been modified, or changed, and the Labyrinthodontia discarded as being a paraphyletic group without unique defining features apart from shared primitive characteristics. Classification varies according to the preferred phylogeny of the author, and whether they use a stem-based or node-based classification. Generally amphibians are defined as the group that includes the common ancestors of all living amphibians (frogs, salamanders, etc) and all their descendants. This may also include extinct groups like the temnospondyls (traditionally placed in the disbanded subclass "labyrinthodontia"), and the Lepospondyls. This means that there are a now large number of basal Devonian and Carboniferous tetrapod groups, described as "amphibians" in earlier books, that are no longer placed in the formal Amphibia.
Fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra)
All recent amphibians are included in the subclass Lissamphibia, superorder Salientia, which is usually considered a clade (which means that it is thought that they evolved from a common ancestor apart from other extinct groups), although it has also been suggested also that salamanders arose separately from a temnospondyl-like ancestor (Carroll, 2007).
Authorities also disagree on whether Salientia is a Superorder that includes the order Anura, or whether Anura is a sub-order of the order Salientia. Practical considerations seem to favour using the former arrangement now.
The Lissamphibia, superorder Salientia, are traditionally divided into three orders, but an extinct salamander-like family, the Albanerpetontidae, is now considered part of the Lissamphibia, besides the superorder Salientia. Furthermore, Salientia includes all three recent orders plus a single Triassic proto-frog, Triadobatrachus.
The actual number of species partly also depends on the taxonomic classification followed, the two most common classifications being the classification of the website AmphibiaWeb, University of California (Berkeley) and the classification by herpetologist Darrel Frost and The American Museum of Natural History, available as the online reference database Amphibian Species of the World (see external links below). The numbers of species cited above follow Frost.
Caecilian from the San Antonio zoo
For the purpose of reproduction most amphibians are bound to fresh water. A few tolerate brackish water, but there are no true seawater amphibians. Several hundred frog species in adaptive radiations (e.g., Eleutherodactylus, the Pacific Platymantines, the Australo-Papuan microhylids, and many other tropical frogs), however, do not need any water whatsoever. They reproduce via direct development, an ecological and evolutionary adaptation that has allowed them to be completely independent from free-standing water. Almost all of these frogs live in wet tropical rainforests and their eggs hatch directly into miniature versions of the adult, passing through the tadpole stage within the egg. Several species have also adapted to arid and semi-arid environments, but most of them still need water to lay their eggs. Symbiosis with single celled algae that lives in the jelly-like layer of the eggs has evolved several times. The larvae (tadpoles or polliwogs) breathe with exterior gills. After hatching, they start to transform gradually into the adult\'s appearance. This process is called metamorphosis. Typically, the animals then leave the water and become terrestrial adults, but there are many interesting exceptions to this general way of reproduction.
Interestingly, recent scienctific evidence put forward by East Carolina University suggests that some species of frogs, like the Dendrobates captivus, often engage in homosexual activity, and as a result their reproduction rate per year has been slowly decreasing.[citation needed]
The most obvious part of the amphibian metamorphosis is the formation of four legs in order to support the body on land. But there are several other changes:
The Golden Toad of Monteverde, Costa Rica was among the first casualties of amphibian declines. Formerly abundant, it was last seen in 1989.
Dramatic declines in amphibian populations, including population crashes and mass localized extinction, have been noted in the past two decades from locations all over the world, and amphibian declines are thus perceived as one of the most critical threats to global biodiversity. A number of causes are believed to be involved, including habitat destruction and modification, over-exploitation, pollution, introduced species, climate change, destruction of the ozone layer (ultraviolet radiation has shown to be especially damaging to the skin, eyes, and eggs of amphibians), and diseases like chytridiomycosis. However, many of the causes of amphibian declines are still poorly understood, and are a topic of ongoing discussion. A global strategy to stem the crisis has been released in the form of the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (available at www.amphibians.org). Developed by over 80 leading experts in the field, this call to action details what would be required to curtail amphibian declines and extinctions over the next 5 years - and how much this would cost. The Amphibian Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) is spearheading efforts to implement a comprehensive global strategy for amphibian conservation.
On January 21, 2008, Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE), per chief Helen Meredith identified nature\'s most endangered species: "The EDGE amphibians are amongst the most remarkable and unusual species on the planet and yet an alarming 85% of the top 100 are receiving little or no conservation attention." The top 10 endangered species (in the List of endangered animal species) include: the Chinese giant salamander, a distant relative of the newt, the tiny Gardiner\'s Seychelles, the limbless Sagalla caecilian, South African ghost frogs, lungless Mexican salamanders, the Malagasy rainbow frog, Chile\'s Darwin frog (Rhinoderma rufum) and the Betic Midwife Toad.Reuters, Giant newt, tiny frog identified as most at riskguardian.co.uk, Drive to save weird and endangered amphibiansguardian.co.uk/environment, images of the speciesguardian.co.uk/environment, Gallery: the world\'s strangest amphibians
The first major groups of amphibians developed in the Devonian Period from fishes similar to the modern coelacanth where the fins had evolved into legs. These amphibians were around five meters long in length. The land safe as the giant fishes and sharks in the ocean could not come onto land. However, there were two problems with living out their entire lives on land. Primarily, the food that these amphibians consumed was in the water, but also at this point the skin on most of these amphibians was not water-tight.
In the Carboniferous Period, the amphibians moved up in the food chain and began to occupy the ecological position where we now find crocodiles. These amphibians were notable for eating the mega-insects on land and many types of fishes in the water. Towards the end of the Permian Period and the Triassic Period, the amphibians started having competition with proto-crocodiles which led to their drop in size in the temperate zones or leaving for the poles. (Amphibians were able to hibernate during the winter whereas crocodiles could not, allowing the amphibians in higher latitudes protection from the reptiles.)
The modern mudskipper provides a rough glimpse into the kind of lifestyle and adaptations that proto-amphibians may have taken.[citation needed] (Mudskippers are not closely related to coelocanths.)
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