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A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found in adult amphibians such as a lateral line, gills and swimming tails.
The evolution of tetrapods began about 400 million years ago in the Devonian Period with the earliest tetrapods evolved from lobe-finned fishes. [1] Tetrapods (under the apomorphy-based definition used on this page) are categorized as animals in the biological superclass Tetrapoda, which includes all living and extinct amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Combined with buccal pumping the internal gills has allowed tadpoles to adopt a filter feeding lifestyle, even if several species have since evolved other types of feeding strategies. [110] The lungs develop early and are used as accessory breathing organs, the tadpoles rising to the water surface to gulp air.
McGuire described another instance of the tadpole phenomenon to NPR. When he and his colleagues captured and euthanized a frog, out came the tadpoles, and they were alive.
The tadpoles then swim out into the open water and rapidly complete their development. [121] Madagascan burrowing frogs are less fossorial and mostly bury themselves in leaf litter. One of these, the green burrowing frog ( Scaphiophryne marmorata ), has a flattened head with a short snout and well-developed metatarsal tubercles on its hind feet ...
Frogs have a two-stage life cycle, with the aquatic tadpole larva metamorphosing into the adult form. This tadpole was in the late stages of metamorphosis. Adults of this species are a similar ...
The behavior of an amphibian hatchling, commonly referred to as a tadpole, is controlled by a few thousand neurons. [4] 99% of a Xenopus hatchling's first day after hatching is spent hanging from a thread of mucus secreted from near its mouth will eventually form; if it becomes detached from this thread, it will swim back and become reattached, usually within ten seconds. [4]
Modern amphibians, which evolved from earlier groups, are generally semiaquatic; the first stages of their lives are as waterborne eggs and fish-like larvae known as tadpoles, and later undergo metamorphosis to grow limbs and become partly terrestrial and partly aquatic.