"Don't be a fish; be a frog. Swim in the water and jump when you hit ground." - Kim Young-Ha

Frogs might be slimy, weird. and sort-of ugly, but they are important pieces of nature that are often overlooked. A frog is not just one species, nor just one small genus. They make up a whole order, much larger than just a group or family, called Anura, meaning "without tails." Tadpoles, essentially frog hatchlings, do indeed have tails, and even gills, but there features are lost when they grow. Frogs are very interesting creatures, so let's hear more about them.

How do they grow?

Frogs start life as frogspawn, or small, clear eggs with black centers. Those centers turn into tadpoles, which swim around until they turn into frogs via growing. Frogs have thousands of kids when thy reach adulthood, but not many make it that far. It's a quantity-over-quality approach.

Are the stereotypes true?

Well, if you kiss a frog, a prince definitely won't come out. However, frogs are excellent jumpers, and very loud too, as the rumors suggest. Toads, and by extention frogs, do not have warts. Don't believe everything you see! Frogs aren't as dirty as people say.

Frog and Toad: How different are they?

Scientifically, not at all different. All toads are frogs, but only a specific Order of frogs are toads. In common speech, a frog refers to a generally smaller, more agile, and generally wetter creature that lives in or bodies of water, while a toad is larger, drier, and tends to flop around a bit more. They're the same thing, however, so our preconceived notions are largely false.

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More reading about frogs can be done on Wikipedia.

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