Sebastiao is a 7 year old explorer of the Ecuadorian rain forest.
Follow his adventures through this field journal.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Toad-O-woad-A



This is a picture of a toad in my hand. The white stuff that is coming out of his skin is actually poison. There is a bump behind its eyes that shoots the poison out when its afraid. The toad may not look like its afraid, but it really is. The toad uses this to protect itself. If you look down in the middle of the toad's backbone. This toad has yellow cat-eyes and little horns above its eyes.





Field notes
True toads are widespread and occur natively on every continent except Australia and Antarctica, inhabiting a variety of environments, from arid areas to rainforest. Most lay eggs in paired strings that hatch into tadpoles, although, in the genus Nectophrynoides the eggs hatch directly into miniature toads. True toads are toothless and generally warty in appearance and have a pair of parotoid glands on the back of their heads. These glands contain an alkaloid poison which the toads excrete when stressed. The poison in the glands contains a number of toxins causing different effects. Bufotoxin is a general term, different animals contain significantly different substances and proportions of substances. Some, like the cane toad Bufo marinus, are more toxic than others.
Bufotoxins are a family of toxic substances found in the parotoid glands, skin and venom of many toads ; other amphibians; and other plants and mushrooms. The exact composition varies greatly with the specific source of the toxin.
Male toads possess a Bidder's organ The Bidder's organ is a spherical, brownish organ in any member of the family Bufonidae, or simply, toads. The organ is located just in front of the kidney, or, mesonephros. It is formed at the cranial tip of the male and female gonad during the larval stage. Normally it is inactive and contains miniature follicles which have the capability to mature (becoming active). Under the right conditions, the organ becomes an active ovary and the toad, in effect, becomes female. (This is similar to the gender-changing frogs described in Jurassic Park, although the dinosaurs in that story hatched female and became male, a process which in nature does not occurr.) Taken from:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/True_toad

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