![]() When first hatched, anuran tadpoles have external gills that are eventually covered by skin, forming an opercular chamber with internal gills vented by spiracles. Tadpoles of frogs and toads are usually globular, with a laterally compressed tail with which they swim by lateral undulation. The external gills will eventually be hidden by a layer of skin. Tadpoles of frogs are mostly herbivorous, while tadpoles of salamanders and caecilians are carnivorous.Īnura Ten-day-old tadpoles. In most cases this larval stage is a limbless free-living organism that has a tail and is referred to as a tadpole, although in a few cases (e.g., in the Breviceps and Probreviceps genera of frogs) direct development occurs in which the larval stage is confined within the egg. ![]() The life cycle of all amphibians involves a larval stage that is intermediate between embryo and adult. Tadpoles swimming in a pond in Japan, 2023 General description Similarly, pollywog / polliwog is from Middle English polwygle, made up of the same pol, 'head', and wiglen, 'to wiggle'. The name tadpole is from Middle English taddepol, made up of the elements tadde, ' toad', and pol, ' head' (modern English poll). Tadpoles are eaten as human food in some parts of the world and are mentioned in various folk tales from around the world. However, traces of biofilms have been preserved and fossil tadpoles have been found dating back to the Miocene. Having no hard skeletons, it might be expected that tadpole fossils would not exist. Some other species hatch into tadpoles underneath the skin of the female adult or are kept in a pouch until after metamorphosis. As they undergo metamorphosis, they start to develop functional lungs for breathing air, and the diet of tadpoles changes drastically.Ī few amphibians, such as some members of the frog family Brevicipitidae, undergo direct development – i.e., they do not undergo a free-living larval stage as tadpoles – instead emerging from eggs as fully formed "froglet" miniatures of the adult morphology. ![]() Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found in adult amphibians such as a lateral line, gills and swimming tails. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Common frog ( Rana temporaria) tadpoleĪ tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. For other uses, see Polliwog (disambiguation).
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