Tag Archives: tadpoles; tadpole ID; identifying tadpoles

Tadpole 101 and Identification

Tadpoles (Photo: Benny Mazur, Flicker Sharing)
Tadpoles (Photo: Benny Mazur, Flicker Sharing)

Do Tadpoles Really Have Teeth?

It's Spring, and despite the weather doing its bipolar dance of 40's to 70's and back, the animals and plants are already starting to bloom, call, sing, mate, and lay eggs.  Here where I live spring peepers are vociferously calling every night. Soon they will be joined by cricket frogs, bull frogs, leopard frogs, green frogs, grey tree frogs, pickerel frogs, wood frogs, and toads. Already there are quite a few tadpoles of mixed origin gracing our vernal pools and ponds, which leads me to today's post about tadpoles. Tadpoles are the larval stage of amphibians. Most people only think about tadpoles as being frogs, but don't leave out their moist cousins (which have larval tadpole stags too) such as salamanders and toads. With that said, let's dive into the world of tadpoles.

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