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Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniotic, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all tetrapods excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic membrane, such as modern reptiles, birds and mammals).
Amphibious fish are fish that are able to leave water for extended periods of time. About 11 distantly related genera of fish are considered amphibious. This suggests that many fish genera independently evolved amphibious traits, a process known as convergent evolution. These fish use a range of methods for land movement, such as lateral ...
The majority of amphibians — except the order Gymnophiona , which are fully terrestrial burrowers — have a fully aquatic larval form known as tadpoles, but those from the order Anura (frogs and toads) and some of the order Urodela (salamanders) will metamorphosize into lung-bearing and sometimes skin-breathing terrestrial adults, and most ...
Aquatic locomotion. A great cormorant swimming. Aquatic locomotion or swimming is biologically propelled motion through a liquid medium. The simplest propulsive systems are composed of cilia and flagella. Swimming has evolved a number of times in a range of organisms including arthropods, fish, molluscs, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Anole lizards, with populations on isolated islands, are one of the best examples of both adaptive radiation and convergent evolution. Anoles on a given island evolve into multiple body types and ecological preferences, and the same set of body types appears in unrelated species across distant islands.
The characteristic quivering abdomen caused by movement of tadpoles within a pregnant female Limnonectes larvaepartus. Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos ...
Aquatic mammal. An Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), a member of the infraorder Cetacea of the order Cetartiodactyla. Aquatic mammals and semiaquatic mammals are a diverse group of mammals that dwell partly or entirely in bodies of water. They include the various marine mammals who dwell in oceans, as well as various freshwater species ...
Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish) Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish, including tetrapods) Osteichthyes (/ ˌɒstiːˈɪkθiːz / ost-ee-IK-theez), [ 2 ] also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue.