The Weird Reproduction Of The Australian Ground Frogs

In one of my post titled Frog's Ability to Acclimatization and Live Everywhere, I discussed about frogs and their ability to live in different environments. I remember mentioning that they can survive in extreme temperatures of Ice and in harsh regions of deserts. But today, I am going to be talking about frogs again but this time around, about how the weird ways at which they have their young but these frogs are natives to Australia just as their name implies.

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We know Australia to be the continent and country that harbors animals especially mammals that can send a person to their early grave if they are not careful and this is because the continent is unique in its own way, with unique animals but that will be a gist for another day. For now, lets discuss the Australian Ground Frog.

The Australian Ground frogs or Australian water frogs is a frog family with over 100 species living in Australia and some live in areas close to the continent like Tasmania, Aru Islands and Papua New Guinea. One of the unique things about these frogs is how they reproduce. While most frogs undergo metamorphosis where they go from eggs to tadpoles and from that to adult, theirs are quite different. Metamorphosis is a process that happens in about 80% of all animals except for a few animals and us humans that do not undergo this process outside our parent.

https://s3.animalia.bio/animals/photos/full/original/sandhillfrog.webp
animalia.bio

Talking about egg to tadpoles before they become tiny looking frogs, there are other types of frogs that skip one stage or the other when giving birth. For instance the Turtle frog (Myobatrachus gouldii) which lives in sandy borrows and lay its eggs in the borrows instead of in water. Its egg actually doesn't go to the tadpole stage, rather from eggs, they hatch to become tiny goofy turtle frogs in a process known as direct development. These frogs do a great job of digging the borrow so it stays humid all though the period till it hatches so the eggs do not dry out.

Some other frogs like this type of reproduction process and so they reproduce the same way like the Northern Sandhill frog (Arenophryne rotunda), and the Forest Toadlet (Metacrinia nichollsi) among others. Talking about tadpoles, some frogs actually lay eggs and their eggs metamorphosis to tadpoles but these tadpoles do not live in water.

https://s3.animalia.bio/animals/photos/full/original/assa-darlingtoni.webp
animalia.bio

An example is the Pouched Frog (Assa darlingtoni) which lays its eggs in a blob of goo on the ground under leaves or trees after which they metamorphose to become tadpoles but they do not live in water. I have been expecting that you ask me where they stay. When the eggs are laid, the male and female frog stay with the eggs and when they hatch to become tadpoles, the male frog crawl to the tadpoles so they can climb its back and remain there until they become froglets. Unlike what scientists have said about the purpose of being a tadpole which is to eat, the Pouched frog tadpole do not eat anything until they become froglets.

These frogs reproducing in different ways help them increase population in various habitat both intense an harsh. Also evolution has played a major role in how they live and how they survive.

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^{https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/frogs-a-chorus-of-colors/frog-fun-facts
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Myobatrachidae/
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/701779
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0173348
https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/turtle-frog
https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/southern-sandhill-frog
https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/forest-toadlet
https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/northern-sandhill-frog
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01715.x
https://www.frogid.net.au/frogs/assa-darlingtoni}