What is the difference between frogs and toads?
The problem with this question is that there isnt an easy answer because toads ARE frogs, or at least they are in the frog family. But toads arent what are called true frogs. True frogs are the species of frogs that most people think of as frogs and not toads. True toads are what people think of as toads and not frogs. There are several differences in true North American frogs and true North American toads. Frogs have smooth, wet skin that looks slimy. Toads have drier, rough skin that looks really bumpy, like warts. This is where the myth comes from that you will get warts when you touch a toad, but that just isnt true. Toads do have a weird smell and yucky taste to their skin, though. This is to keep bigger animals from wanting to eat them. Frogs have skinnier bodies than toads to. Toads are kind of wide and look fat.
Frogs and toads are very much alike and both belong to that group of cold-blooded creatures that live both in water and on land. Most frogs and toads resemble each other very closely and it’s often hard to tell them apart. Frogs and toads often live to a good old age, sometimes even as long as 30 or 40 years. Frogs are smooth, slippery, long and graceful, where most toads are dry, warty and squat. Also, most frogs have teeth while most toads have none. A toad lays fewer eggs than a frog, which means anywhere from 4000 to 12000 eggs every year, while a female bullfrog may put down from 18000 to 20000 eggs in a session. Almost all amphibians lay eggs and hatch them. There are certain kinds of toads in which the male plays an important role in hatching the eggs. Toads live in temperature and tropical regions. Handling toads is not harmful but in case of frogs it may harm.
Yes they are very closely related. The order Anura contains 4,810 species in 33 families, of which the Leptodactylidae (1100 spp.), Hylidae (800 spp.) and Ranidae (750 spp.) are the richest in species. About 88% of amphibian species are frogs. The use of the common names “frog” and “toad” has no taxonomic justification. From a taxonomic perspective, all members of the order Anura are frogs, but only members of the family Bufonidae are considered “true toads”. The use of the term “frog” in common names usually refers to species that are aquatic or semi-aquatic with smooth and/or moist skins, and the term “toad” generally refers to species that tend to be terrestrial with dry, warty skin that seems as though it has been mauled by another animal. An exception is the fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina): while its skin is slightly warty, it prefers a watery habitat.
