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All modern amphibians are included in the subclass Lissamphibia, which is usually considered a clade, a group of species that have evolved from a common ancestor. The three modern orders are Anura (the frogs), Caudata (or Urodela, the salamanders), and Gymnophiona (or Apoda, the caecilians). [ 15 ]
Clawed frogs have powerful legs that help them move quickly both underwater and on land. Feral clawed frogs in South Wales have been found to travel up to 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) between locations. [11] The feet of Xenopus species have three black claws on the last three digits. These claws are used to rip apart food and scratch predators.
The list below largely follows Darrel Frost's Amphibian Species of the World (ASW), Version 5.5 (31 January 2011). Another classification, which largely follows Frost, but deviates from it in part is the one of AmphibiaWeb , which is run by the California Academy of Sciences and several of universities.
Amphipoda (/ æ m ˈ f ɪ p ə d ə /) is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods (/ ˈ æ m f ɪ p ɒ d z /) range in size from 1 to 340 millimetres (0.039 to 13 in) and are mostly detritivores or scavengers.
Amphibians use their skin as a secondary respiratory interface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs and rely entirely on their skin. They are superficially similar to reptiles like lizards , but unlike reptiles and other amniotes , require access to water bodies to breed.
Eocaecilia, an Early Jurassic amphibian commonly considered one of the oldest (stem-group) caecilians. Little is known of the evolutionary history of the caecilians, which have left a very sparse fossil record. The first fossil, a vertebra dated to the Paleocene, was not discovered until 1972. [44]
The number of known amphibian species is approximately 8,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. The smallest amphibian (and vertebrate) in the world is a frog from New Guinea ( Paedophryne amauensis ) with a length of just 7.7 mm (0.30 in).
Temnospondyli (from Greek τέμνειν, temnein 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, spondylos 'vertebra') or temnospondyls is a diverse ancient order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic periods, with fossils being found on every continent.