Amphibian Flashcards
The name is derived from the presence of four limbs
sarcopterygian descendants that possess well-formed
forelimbs and hindlimbs.
Tetrapoda
The earliest amphibians arose during what period?
Devonian period
The fossil record provides evidence of many extinct
Evolutionary History
tetrapod taxa, and no one knows what animal was the
first tetrapod. The best-known and some of the earliest
fossils were first discovered in Greenland in 1932. They
are of a 365-million-year-old group called ______.
Ichthyostegalia
One of the more recent, and more significant of these “transitional” fossils, was unearthed in 2004 in
the frigid, barren Canadian tundra of Ellesmere
Island. Named ___ by the team of
paleontologists who discovered it.
Tiktaalik
______documents key steps in the vertebrate transition from water to land, and its features suggest that key tetrapod traits, such as wrist, ribs,
and a flexible neck, were ancestral to the tetrapod
lineage.
Tiktaalik
Refers to living amphibians the reptiles (including birds), mammals, and the common ancestor of these groups.
Lissamphibia”
During the ________, amphibians underwent a population explosion
By the _____ (299-250 mya), amphibians had reached the peak of their success with more than 40 families, most of which were either semiaquatic or completely terrestrial.
Carboniferous period (360-299 mya)
Permian period
Name the three orders of class amphibia
ORDER GYMNOPHIONA
ORDER CAUDATA
ORDER ANURA
160 species confined to tropical regions although some are aquatic, most are wormlike burrowers that feed on worms and other invertebrates in the soil.
Caecilians
(Gr. gymnos, naked + ophineos, like a snake)
Gymnophiona
(L. cauda, tail + Gr. ata, to bear)
Caudata
Most of the 400 species of are found in the Northern Hemisphere, with secondary radiation to tropical and subtropical regions
Most terrestrial live in moist forest-floor litter and have aquatic larvae.
Salamanders
Salamandridae are commonly called ____. They spend most of their lives in water and frequently retain caudal fins.
newts
Males produce a pyramidal, gelatinous _____ that is capped with sperm and deposited on the substrate. Females pick up the sperm cap with the cloaca and store the sperm in a special pouch, the ______
spermatophore
spermatheca.
Many other salamanders undergo incomplete metamorphosis and are _____
paedomorphic .
_____ are divided into two genera in the family Proteidae.
They are found throughout North America and Europe (one species) and spend their entire lives underwater.
They exchange respiratory gases through their gills, which they retain as adults from the larval stage, and across their skin.
They prefer slowmoving streams and shallow lakes, where they feed on crayfish, snails, and insect larvae.
Mudpuppies
