Real toads

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Real toads
Bufo japonicus

Bufo japonicus

Systematics
Row : Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
without rank: Amphibians (Lissamphibia)
Order : Frog (anura)
Subordination : Neobatrachia
Family : Toads (Bufonidae)
Genre : Real toads
Scientific name
Bufo
Garsault , 1764

The real toads ( Bufo ) form a species-rich genus in the toad family (Bufonidae), which belongs to the order of the frogs (Anura).

description

Real toads usually have a stocky, strong physique (for anatomy compare: Neobatrachia ), a short snout, horizontally positioned pupils, conspicuous ear glands ( parotids ) on the back of the head and rather short legs. The dry skin is covered with warty bumps. In the "warts" as well as in the parotid glands open which can secrete skin toxins . These secretions protect the animals from predators and skin parasites. The jawbones are toothless. The so-called Biddersche organ - rudimentary ovaries in males - is also characteristic of the genus and of the family . As with all Neobatrachia, the mating takes place with an axillary clasping by the male, i.e. backwards behind the front legs of the female. The spawn is usually released into the water in the form of long, thin, string-like gelatinous cords.

Bufotenin was detected as a bufotoxin in the skin secretion of various species, such as the European common toad . This tryptamine- based hallucinogenic alkaloid develops a similar, albeit weaker, effect to LSD in the human body .

distribution

The genus Bufo in the classical sense comprised almost 300 species worldwide from the cold-temperate to the tropical zones. Centers of evolution and distribution of the genus today are the two continents South America and Africa, which emerged from the previous southern continent of Gondwana through continental drift . From there, North America or Asia and Europe were later settled. In Australia, on New Guinea and on many other islands, where they did not originally occur, some species were artificially settled by humans (see cane toad ). In Europe, only three species are native belonging to different but according to recent phylogenetic research three kinds: common toad ( Bufo bufo ), the natterjack toad ( Epidalea calamita ) and green toad ( Bufotes viridis ) - all in Germany.

As with other genera of the frogs, the species of the Old and New World have diverged during the long period of continent separation . According to a cladistic analysis of the family tree of the frogs by Darrell Frost et al. in 2006 there was a revision of many genera. The nearctic species of the formerly very large genus Bufo were placed in their own genus with the name Anaxyrus .

Way of life

The real toads are mostly terrestrial , crepuscular and nocturnal animals that hide during the day. When it comes to the habitat settlement strategy, a distinction is made between “local” species ( K-strategists ) that repeatedly visit traditional breeding waters (for example the common toad ) and “stray”, new small bodies of water that spontaneously colonize species ( r-strategists ; for example the natterjack toad ). The latter, as males, have large throat-like sound vesicles in order to draw the attention of females to themselves and a suitable spawning area over a large distance.

species

17 species remain in the genus Bufo (as of April 25, 2014, reviewed on August 30, 2019):

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Darrel R. Frost, Taran Grant, Julián Faivovich, Raoul H. Bain, Alexander Haas, Celio FB Haddad, Rafael O. de Sá, A. Channing, Mark Wilkinson, Stephen C. Donnellan, Christopher J. Raxworthy, Jonathan A. Campbell, Boris L. Blotto, Paul E. Moler, Robert C. Drewes, Ronald A. Nussbaum, John D. Lynch, David M. Green, and Ward C. Wheeler: The amphibian tree of life. In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Volume 297, 2006, pp. 1-370 ( full text ).
  2. ↑ Darrel R. Frost: Bufo , Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference, Version 6.0, American Museum of Natural History, 1998-2014, accessed April 24, 2014.
  3. ↑ Glandt, Dieter: The amphibians and reptiles of Europe, all kinds in portrait . Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2015, ISBN 978-3-494-01581-1 , p. 155 .

Web links

Commons : Toads ( Bufo )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files