Tortuguero, Costa Rica: Bufo marinus

[urbpan]

Since the woodfrogling went over well, I thought I'd pull up another amphibian from the archives. Bufo marinus is known by many names, depending on where it's found. Usually it's called "marine toad," which doesn't make much sense--like other members of genus Bufo, it is terrestrial (to my knowledge there are no marine amphibians). Probably it

Comments

[shellizzle]

Wow. So, I'm going to ask a very stupid question -- what's the difference between a toad and a frog?

[urbpan]

That's really not a stupid question, as you can see by how complicated I'm going to make the answer.

First, if you aren't an animal specialist, all you really need to know is, toads are dry and warty, frogs are smooth and slimy.

Now the complicated bit. Sometimes you'll hear an animal person talk about "true frogs" and "true toads." Well, you know how all living things have a two-part scientific name? (Homo sapiens, for example.) For something to be a true frog, it's scientific name must begin with Rana, like the wood frog, Rana sylvatica. For something to be a "true toad" it's scientific name begins Bufo, like Bufo marinus, above. Now, why did I bother to complicate things? The thing on my nose in my icon is a gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor), and it's warty AND slimy. There's a popular pet store critter called an African clawed toad (Xenopus laevis, sometimes called an African clawed frog) and it's smooth and slimy. Likewise, the fire-bellied toad (Bombina orientalis, another pet store creature) is slimy and warty