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Hilary Term 1 > Amphibian diversity > Flashcards

Amphibian diversity Flashcards

1
Q

Which Superclass do the Amphibia exist within?

A

The Tetrapods

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2
Q

Who are the Lissamphibia

A

Extant amphibia

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3
Q

Describe the Lissamphibia

A
  • permeable skin
  • extensive vascularisation
  • smooth mucus-covered thin skin with dermal glands (for active water and active salt uptake)
  • wide diversity of body forms
  • diverse reproductive strategies
  • carnivorous feeding
  • habitats from deserts to caves to trees to ponds
  • NEVER back in the sea.
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4
Q

Give the 3 Orders of Lissamphibia

A
  • Urodela (salamanders)
  • Anura (frogs and toads)
  • Caecilians
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5
Q

Describe the tadpole

A
  • aquatic early developmental stage
  • ancestral
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6
Q

Describe the life of a tadpole

A
  • eggs fertilised by attending male as they are being laid in the water
  • tadpole feeds first on algae; later on insects
  • grows and develops gills
  • in the later tadpole, the hind legs grow and lungs develop,
    forelegs appear and the tail regresses
  • froglet becomes terrestrial
  • grow on land
  • return to water to breed several years later
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7
Q

Describe Lissamphibian slimy skin

A
  • epidermis soft with local horny regions
  • dermis contains numerous glands opening to the surface
  • chromatophores expand to change skin colour
  • mucous glands secrete mucus to cover the skin
  • poison glands release alkaloids under active control
  • fibrous connective tissue overlaying muscle
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8
Q

Describe a frog’s horny regions

A
  • keratinous
  • protective
  • moulted
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9
Q

Describe Lissamphibian skin secretions

A
  • batrachotoxin
  • bufotoxin
  • Epipedobates produces a potent painkiller
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10
Q

batrachotoxin

A
  • deadly alkaloid
  • 0.2 mg is fatal to humans
  • Phyllobates terribilis
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11
Q

bufotoxin

A
  • noxious irritant
  • produced by toads
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12
Q

Epipedobates

A

Central-American frog

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13
Q

Describe the epidermal chromatophores

A
  • used in camouflage: Peron’s tree frog (Litoria peronii)
  • used in aposematism (Dendrobates azureus)
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14
Q

Describe Amphibian gas exchange

A
  • lungs
  • many aquatic salamanders have external gills too
  • plethodontid salamanders have neither lungs nor gills
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15
Q

Describe Amphibian lungs

A
  • relatively small
  • simple sacs or with a few septa to increase the blood to air exchange area
  • large alveoli
  • slow diffusion
  • OK with low BMR
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16
Q

Describe Amphibian inspiration

A
  • hyoid lowered, filling buccal cavity
  • air into open nostrils
  • nostrils close and glottis opens
  • hyoid raises
  • air forced into lungs
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17
Q

Describe Lissamphibian expiration

A
  • nostrils and glottis open
  • trunk muscles contract, emptying the lungs
  • hyoid fluttering purges lungs before re-filling
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18
Q

Describe Lissamphibian cutaneous exchange

A
  • skin is richly vascularised
  • exchange through the lungs
    and the skin of a toad in air depends on temperature
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19
Q

What happens to Lissamphibian gas exchange at low temperatures?

A
  • more exchange occurs via skin than via the lungs.
  • in winter, a toad relies almost completely
    on cutaneous exchange.
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20
Q

What happens to Lissamphibian gas exchange at high temperatures?

A
  • lungs become more important for O2
  • skin becomes more important for CO2 exchange
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21
Q

Describe the amphibian heart

A
  • dual system
  • three-chambered
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22
Q

Label an amphibian heart

A
  • left carotid arch
  • left systemic arch
  • left pulmocutaneous arch
  • systemic veins
  • left pulmonary vein
  • right atrium
  • aorta
  • left atrium
  • interatrial septum
  • atrioventricular valve
  • ventricle
  • right atrium
  • spiral valve
  • opening of left pulmocutaneous arch
  • right pulmocutaneous arch
  • right systemic arch
  • right carotid arch
  • right pulmonary vein
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23
Q

Air and water have different refractive indices

A

1.0 v. 1.33

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24
Q

Describe Lissamphibian vision

A
  • must be able to accommodate air and water
  • lens is rigid and of high refractive index (more spherical in aquatic amphibians)
  • lens muscle pulls the lens forwards to accommodate nearer objects
  • distance perception relies on the angle of convergence of the two eyes: binocular overlap in fields of the two eyes
  • foveal region
  • retina has purple and green rods
  • nictitating membrane ‘blinks’ to keep the cornea moist
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25
Q

Describe green rods

A
  • unique to amphibians
  • more sensitive to movement
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26
Q

Describe Urodela - the basics

A
  • newts and salamanders
  • 515spp
  • Eurasia and North America to Central America (neither Africa nor Australia)
  • e.g. Neurergus kaiseri
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27
Q

Describe Anura - the basics

A
  • frogs and toads
  • 4800+ spp
  • all continents except Antarctica
  • e.g. Tree frog
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28
Q

Describe Caecilia - the basics

A
  • otherwise known as “caecilians”
  • 180+ spp.
  • tropics around the world
  • e.g. Ichthyophis glutinosis
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29
Q

Describe Urodela - the specifics

A
  • long tails
  • least derived of the lissamphibians
  • confined to the northern hemisphere
  • greatest diversity is in the southern U.S. and tropical N. America
  • range in adult body size from c.50 mm long to over 1.5 m long
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30
Q

Give an example of a 50mm Urodel

A

some plethodontid salamanders

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31
Q

Give an example of 1.5m long Urodel

A

Japanese giant salamander

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32
Q

Describe the typical Urodel lifestyle

A

only aquatic in breeding season

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33
Q

Describe Ambystoma

A
  • can breed either as the adult salamander form, or in gill-bearing, permanently-aquatic “larval” axolotl form
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34
Q

Describe Megalobatrachus or Andrius

A
  • live in cold mountain streams of China and Japan
  • grow to 1.5m length
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35
Q

Describe Cryptobranchus

A
  • large US relative
  • highly folded large area skins
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36
Q

Describe Amphiuma

A
  • vestigial legs
  • aquatic
  • lives in muddy swamps
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37
Q

Describe Siren

A
  • lost its hind legs
  • retains larval gills
  • acquatic
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38
Q

Describe Proteus and Typhlomolge

A
  • live in caves
  • permanently aquatic with external gills
  • colourless
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39
Q

Describe Urodele skeletons

A
  • bones of the skull are weak and reduced,
    with large open orbits
  • ribs are short, extend beyond the trunk and do not form a rib-cage
  • long tail used in both swimming and walking
  • both pairs of legs are short and weak: the wrist and ankle are weakly ossified: four fingers and five toes
  • only a single weak sacral vertebra
40
Q

Describe Urodele swimming

A
  • tall long tail fin undulates but lacks fin rays
  • fin is reduced or absent in terrestrial phases
  • short legs minor contribution
  • myotomes in both trunk and tail cause lateral body undulation
41
Q

Descrive Urodele walking

A
  • bending of body increases effective arc of leg swing
  • bending at wrist and elbow as well as ankle and knee
  • body bent to side of leg overlap
  • body straightens in mid stride
  • body bent to opposite side
  • body rises and falls
42
Q

Describe the position of a Urodel’s hands and feet

A

feet first

43
Q

As a newt tries to run faster, the body

A
  • sags
  • is dragged along the substrate
44
Q

Describe the Urodel sprawling gait

A
  • associated with complex leg movements
  • up-down and side-to-side body undulation
45
Q

Describe the mechanics of Urodel walking

A
  • femur swings approx. in horizontal plane
  • rotation of tibia on fibula
46
Q

Describe Urodel courtship

A
  • elaborately patterned male dorsal fin and tail enlarge
  • become coloured in the breeding season
  • mating usually occurs in water
  • male may hold the
    female, transferring pheromones
  • visual displays
47
Q

Describe Urodel fertilisation

A
  • bag of sperm joined to gelatinous basal attachment
  • occurs in the oviduct
  • zygotes/embryos may be retained.
48
Q

Describe Urodel development

A
  • eggs often deposited singly on vegetation
  • develop as tadpoles with external gills
49
Q

Describe European newts

A

front legs are the first to grow.

50
Q

Describe the Mexican axolotl

A
  • neotenous salamander that retains its larval gills
  • lives and breeds in water
  • similar to Siren and Necturus
51
Q

Describe Order Anura

A
  • lack tails
  • specialised for walking and jumping
  • greatest diversity in the wet tropics
  • found in deserts and tundra
  • range in adult body size from c. 10 mm to over 30 cm long and over 3 kg weight
52
Q

Give the 3kg frog

A

Goliath frog; Conraua goliath

53
Q

Describe Triadobatrachus

A
  • 5 toes on front feet
  • 14 presacral vertebrae
  • short ilium
  • no urostyle
  • short hind limbs and toes
54
Q

Describe modern Bufo

A
  • 4 toes on front feet
  • 5 to 9 presacral vertebrae
  • elongated ilium
  • urostyle
  • long hind limbs and toes
55
Q

What are the well-known toad and frog genera of Europe?

A

Bufo and Rana

56
Q

Describe Anuran diversity

A
  • Hyla: large genus of tree frogs. - Pipa and Xenopus: totally
    aquatic tropical toads that lack tongues.
  • Pipa, Alytes and Gastrotheca: interesting parental care strategies
  • Breviceps: desert frog specialised for burrowing.
  • Ascaphus, the “tailed frog”: internal fertilisation and an extended urostyle
57
Q

Canadian wood frog (Rana sylvatica)

A

frogsicles!

58
Q

Describe anuran skeletons

A
  • spine very short
  • hind legs long
  • no tail
  • flimsy skull, large orbits
  • shock-absorbent shoulders, arms and hands
  • long ilium, femur, tibio-fibula and foot
59
Q

Describe anuran jumping

A
  • after take-off, hind legs are fully extended
  • many small frog spp. can clear over 1.5 m
  • 10m triple jump
60
Q

Describe the skeletal movement during frog jumping

A

leg extension occurs at four hinges:
- sacro-iliac joint
- ilio-femoral joint
- femoro-tibial joint
- tibio-tarsal joint

61
Q

Describe Anuran landing

A
  • front legs fully extended
  • kinetic energy absorbed by bending arms, and separation of the flexible ventral parts of the pectoral girdle
  • hind legs re-flexed after landing
62
Q

Describe Anuran tree climbing

A
  • curling digits
  • adhesive toe-pads
  • e.g. Hylidae
63
Q

Describe Anuran acoustic communication

A
  • ear drums
  • lungs grossly dilated
  • vocal sac collapsed
  • air forced from lungs
  • vocal sac inflates
64
Q

Describe the Anuran ear drum

A
  • connected by the columella to the inner ear
  • hear from c. 50 Hz to 8 kHz
  • can locate sources to ±10 degrees
65
Q

columella

A

or stapes

66
Q

Urodels are

A

mute and deaf

67
Q

Inflating the vocal sac via the larynx produces sound as

A

single pulses
or a train of pulses.

68
Q

Describe the skin of the vocal sac

A
  • elastic
  • lungs are re-filled as it collapses
  • silent phase
69
Q

Describe Anuran songs

A
  • species specific
  • used in mate-attraction, territorial marking, aggression and as alarm signals
70
Q

Describe Alytes, the midwife toad

A

produces long pure-tone pulses at about 1.3 kHz
to call females to his territory

71
Q

Describe Dendrobates

A

poison-arrow frog

72
Q

Describe Anuran fertilisation

A
  • external
73
Q

Describe Anuran constraints

A
  • cannot lay large egg-batches
  • produce a few relatively large eggs that develop directly in the damp leaf litter
74
Q

Describe Anuran size

A
  • froglets and toadlets of most European species are only 10-15mm long
  • vulnerable to desiccation.
  • many tropical species only 10-15mm long when adult;
    can only survive in rain forests, tend to live on or within the wet undergrowth (where they hide during the heat of the day)
75
Q

Describe the “conventional” frog/toad strategy

A
  • many eggs, pond-dwelling tadpole that feeds on pond-life and grows to a size at which it can safely become a froglet
  • only valid where there is a rich, comparatively safe seasonal niche
76
Q

Describe Anuran post- oviposition parental care

A
  • buccal and gastric brooders swallow newly-laid eggs which develop into froglets.
77
Q

Describe the Gastrotheca male

A
  • eggs in dorsal pouch
  • pouch opening
78
Q

Describe Pipa pipa

A
  • large fully-aquatic Surinam toad
  • females carry eggs in pouches that form in the dorsal skin where they develop into froglets.
79
Q

Describe Rhinoderma darwinii male

A

incubates the eggs in his vocal sac where they develop into froglets

80
Q

Describe Rheobatrachus

A
  • Australian gastric-brooding frog
  • female incubates eggs in stomach
81
Q

Describe Anuran successes

A
  • nearly 5,000 spp.
  • adept at gaining water and tolerating water loss
  • parental-care mechanisms that emancipate them from the conventional egg-tadpole-frog life cycle
  • within the tropics, they include the smallest tetrapods
  • can hop, swim and climb, thereby widening their range of habitats and ecological horizons
  • low BMR and being water-tolerant enables them to exploit impoverished niches that cannot support others
  • many are too toxic to eat
  • cryptic and agile
82
Q

How many species of tree frog are there?

A

700+

83
Q

How many species of poisonous Anuran are there?

A
  • 450 spp of toads
  • 200+ spp. of poison arrow frogs
84
Q

How many species of land and swamp frogs are there?

A

700+

85
Q

Why are Anuran in decline?

A
  • human-influenced climate and habitat change such as intensive farming and de-forestation
  • spread of fungal infections
  • increasing use of herbicides & fertilisers.
86
Q

Describe the Order Caecilia

A
  • alternative name: Apoda
  • lack legs
  • specialised burrowers
  • inhabit soil & water in the wet tropics excluding Australia.
  • range in adult body size from c. 100 mm to over 0.5 m long
  • only 160 spp.
87
Q

Describe the morphology of the Order Caecilia

A
  • small weak eyes covered with skin
  • long cylindrical trunk
  • long right lung
  • very short post-anal tail
  • no ears
  • retractible chemo-sensory tentacles
  • skin thrown into rings; rings of small scales used to grip the
    walls of a burrow
  • ## smooth rounded head for pushing through soil
88
Q

Describe Ichthyophis

A
  • southern Asia
  • Caecilian
  • burrows in damp soil
89
Q

Describe the Caecilia skull

A
  • large nasal openings
  • tentacle cavity
  • many sharp pedicellate teeth
  • small orbits and eyes
  • robust and heavily ossified
  • strong lower jaw
  • atlas
  • rib
  • V2
90
Q

Describe Dermophis

A
  • central American
  • Caecilian
  • burrows in damp soil
91
Q

Describe Caecilian concertina burrowing

A
  • concertina forms an anchor, from which the front of the body can be pushed forwards
  • part of the trunk is made rigid by muscles acting on helical fibres in the skin
  • new concertina forms an anterior anchor, allowing rear of the body to be pulled forwards
  • robust spear-shaped head acts as a ram
  • part of the trunk is drawn-up passively into the anterior concertina
92
Q

Describe Caecilian reproduction

A
  • fertilisation is internal via a male intromittent organ inflated from the cloaca
  • development is essentially direct without a metamorphosis
93
Q

Characteristic feature of Lissamphibia

A

slimy skin

94
Q

Describe archaism in Caecilia

A
  • full set of teeth,
  • complete rib cage
  • no sternum
  • scales
  • a strong skull
95
Q

Describe the parallels between Caecilia and snakes/legless lizards

A
  • loss of all limbs and girdles
  • spade-like penetrating skull
  • long rib-bearing trunk
  • short tail
  • concertina locomotion
  • a single long (R) lung;
  • loss of ears
  • vestigial eyes with permanent covers, used mainly as light detectors
  • other unique sense organs
  • internal fertilisation -> viviparity in some

Hilary Term 1 (61 decks)

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