Biology
Amphibian and Reptile Biology and Conservation, the 2017 Joint Scientific Meeting
Conference news from the world of frogs, salamanders, lizards and snakes...
"amphibians"
Evolution
The Microsaurs of Yore
It’s an exciting time to be interested in microsaurs. Wait a minute — what the hell is a microsaur? Let’s find out…...
Biology
The 2017 Amphibian Conservation Research Symposium
Amphibian-themed conferences are always good, and I just went to one -- it was great!
Biology
The Terrible Leaf Walker Frog
One of the most terrifying frogs in existence is bright yellow, social, reasonably intelligent (for a frog), and one of the biggest members of its group...
Evolution
Nonstandard Ideas in Amphibian Evolution, Part 3: Could Sirens Not Be Salamanders?
Sirens—long-bodied, aquatic salamanders—are weird. But are they really so weird that they might not be salamanders at all? It's a radical idea that has at least been considered...
Evolution
Nonstandard Ideas in Amphibian Evolution, Part 2: Salamanders and Caecilians Evolved Independently of all other tetrapods
Might it be that salamanders (and caecilians) are not close kin of frogs, that they evolved wholly independently of all other tetrapods?
Biology
Squeakers: Frogs with Claws, Frogs with "Hair"
Fame at last for a poorly known group of African frogs...
Biology
The Biology of Sirens
Sirens build nests, have beaks, eat plants and have a history of "size shuffling"--they're incredible!
The Sciences
What Sort of Animal Is Gephyrostegus?
I'm glad you asked
Evolution
A Need for News on Nototriton
I must have said that one of my aims here at Tet Zoo is to write about obscure amphibian species that rarely get covered elsewhere. The main thing stopping or slowing this plan concerns the availability of images – good, available pictures showing the species concerned are often not availability...
Evolution
The Korean Crevice Salamander
The presence in Europe of plethodontids is unusual enough (albeit well known), but a major surprise in plethodontid research was the discovery of an Asian member of the group, the Korean crevice salamander Karsenia koreana Min et al ., 2005...
Evolution
Horned Treefrogs and Other Marsupial Frogs
Today we’re going to look at one of the most remarkable groups of frogs in the world. And as of July 2015, there are over 6540 anuran species, so that’s a lot to choose from...
Evolution
`Strange bedfellow frogs' (part II): pig-nosed or shovel-nosed frogs, or snouts-burrowers
A few weeks back - during the Tet Zoo frog event - I wrote about the peculiar African brevicipitid frogs, variously termed short-headed frogs or rain frogs.
Evolution
A Brief Introduction to Reed, Sedge and Lily Frogs
Here's a very brief article to a group of frogs. It's a slightly modified version of an article that initially appeared on Tet Zoo ver 2 during November 2007.
Evolution
It's the Helmeted water toad… this time, with information!
Back in October 2007 (at Tet Zoo ver 2) I wrote a very brief article on a poorly known, gigantic, deeply weird South American frog: the Helmeted water toad, Chilean giant frog or Gay's frog* Calyptocephalella gayi (long known - incorrectly it turns out - as Caudiverbera caudiverbera)...
`Strange bedfellow frogs' (part I): rotund, adorable brevicipitids
Suddenly and unexpectedly, I have the urge to write about frogs. Today we look briefly at the first of two behaviourally peculiar, anatomically surprising groups, both of which are endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, both of which belong to a major neobatrachian frog clade called Allodapanura, and both of which have been united in a clade [...]..
Evolution
There Is So Much More to Flying Frogs Than Flying
Episode 2 of David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies appeared on TV the other day, and I watched it (in fact, I livetweeted throughout, mostly because I wanted to talk about their portrayal of pterosaurs and Mesozoic theropods)...
Evolution
Frogs you may not have heard of: Brazil’s Cycloramphus `button frogs'
The world is full of frogs, and while I've made reasonable efforts over Tet Zoo's nearly nine years of operation to cover some of this diversity (see the links at the bottom of this article), there are many groups that I've never even mentioned...
Evolution
Gladiatorial glassfrogs, redux
Readers with supernaturally good memories might remember the two articles, published here back in January and February 2013, on glassfrogs, a highly unusual and poorly known group of Neotropical frogs, so named due to their incredible translucent or transparent ventral skin...
Evolution
Tadpole nests, past and present
Thanks to that recent Tet Zoo article about American spadefoot toads and their tadpoles, I've had visions in my mind of drying ephemeral pools in hot, arid environments, crammed with crowded, gasping tadpoles...
