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News tagged with amphibian

Fossil cricket: Jurassic love song reconstructed

Some 165 million years ago, the world was host to a diversity of sounds. Primitive bushcrickets and croaking amphibians were among the first animals to produce loud sounds by stridulation (rubbing certain ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Study: Triple threat paints grim future for frogs

Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians may eventually have no safe haven left on the globe because of a triple threat of worsening scourges, a new study predicts.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 16, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Frog trade link to killer fungus revealed

The global trade in frogs, toads and other amphibians may have accidentally helped create and spread the deadly fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, which has devastated amphibian populations worldwide.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

West Nile virus transmission linked to land use patterns and 'super-spreaders'

After its initial appearance in New York in 1999, West Nile virus spread across the United States in just a few years and is now well established throughout North and South America. Both the mosquitoes that ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Oct 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Rare albino alligator goes on show in US

An extremely rare albino alligator from the swamps of Louisiana is taking up residence in Washington, dazzling visitors with her brilliant white skin.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Biodiversity helps dilute infectious disease, reduce its severity

Researchers at Oregon State University have shown for the first time that loss of biodiversity may be contributing to a fungal infection that is killing amphibians around the world, and provides more evidence ...

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Invasive amphibians, reptiles in Florida outnumber world

Florida has the world's worst invasive amphibian and reptile problem, and a new 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher verifies the pet trade as the No. 1 cause of the species' introductions.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Possible biological control discovered for pathogen devastating amphibians

Zoologists at Oregon State University have discovered that a freshwater species of zooplankton will eat a fungal pathogen which is devastating amphibian populations around the world.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Borneo rainbow toad seen for 1st time in 87 years

Scientists scouring the mountains of Borneo spotted a toad species last seen in 1924 by European explorers and provided the world with the first photographs of the colorful, spindly legged creature, a researcher ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 3

Fighting massive declines in frog populations with bacteria and fungicides

A microscopic chytrid fungus is causing massive declines in frog populations all over the world and even the extinction of certain species. Together with colleagues from Europe and the USA, researchers from ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 21, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Scientists find deadly amphibian disease in the last disease-free region of central America

Smithsonian scientists have confirmed that chytridiomycosis, a rapidly spreading amphibian disease, has reached a site near Panama's Darien region. This was the last area in the entire mountainous neotropics ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Fungus destroying amphibian populations at higher rate than habitat destruction

(PhysOrg.com) -- According to a new report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, human development and habitat loss are not the main contributor to the population decline of man ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 01, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

Amphibian disease risk higher in undisturbed habitats

Amphibians may be more susceptible to disease in undisturbed natural habitats, a study in this week's issue of PNAS finds.

Biology / Ecology

created May 30, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Modern EU agriculture jeopardizes biodiversity in new member states

Traditional agricultural practices can make a major contribution to preserving biodiversity in the EU's new member states in Central and Eastern Europe. By contrast, the construction of roads and the intensification ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 26, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Small insects attack and kill amphibians much bigger than themselves

New findings of researchers from Tel-Aviv University show that predator-prey interactions between ground beetles of the genus Epomis and amphibians are much more complex than expected. The study was publis ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Amphibian

   Order Temnospondyli - extinct Subclass Lepospondyli - extinct Subclass Lissamphibia    Order Anura    Order Caudata    Order Gymnophiona

Amphibians (class Amphibia), such as frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians, are ectothermic (or cold-blooded) animals that metamorphose from a juvenile water-breathing form, to an adult air-breathing form. Though amphibians typically have four limbs, the Caecilians are notable for being limbless. Unlike other land animals (amniotes), amphibians lay eggs in water. Amphibians are superficially similar to reptiles.

Amphibians are ecological indicators, and in recent decades there has been a dramatic decline in amphibian populations around the globe. Many species are now threatened or extinct.

Amphibians evolved in the Devonian Period and were top predators in the Carboniferous and Permian Periods, but many lineages were wiped out during the Permian-Triassic extinction. One group, the metoposaurs, remained important predators during the Triassic, but as the world became drier during the Early Jurassic they died out, leaving a handful of relict temnospondyls like Koolasuchus and the modern orders of Lissamphibia.

For more information about Amphibian, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.