Steve Jones., Age 13, Of Winston Salem.. N.C., for his question:
How does the surinam toad raise her young?
Frogs and toads are tailless amphibians, and more than 1700 species have been classified. An amateur can sort most of the slippery skinned, water loving frogs from the warty'. Land loving toads. But the surinam toad is an exception. Even the experts are not quite sure whether this amazing animal belongs with the frogs or the toads.
The slippery fogs have skins covered with mucus and they never venture far from their private swimming pools. The adult toads leave home to live in meadows and woodlands and even deserts; and though their skins must be kept moist, they are not covered with slippery mucus. Most frogs and toads have large, staring eyes and eyelids and long tongues for catching insects on the wing.
The surinam toad is a tailless amphibian, but he is an odd member of the class. He has a spongy., toad like skin . but never does he leave the water. He has no teeth and no tongue of any kind, and his tiny eyes are without eyelids. Most tailless amphibians lay their jellified eggs and desert them leaving them floating in the water or stuck to some moist foliage. The eggs of the female surinam toad are hatched in small pockets on her spongy back.
The eggs are layed one at a time through a long tube called the ovipositor .¬ Meaning egg placer. The male surinam toad helps place each ball of jelly onto the back of the female. There it sinks down into the spongy skin, and the egg produces a lid to seal itself safely inside its small nursery. There it stays for several weeks
Meantime, the mother surinam toad goes about her daily business of swimming and hunting for food on the floor of the stream. Inside the bumps on her back, the eggs hatch into tadpoles and the tadpoles develop into toads. When the bumps on manals back break open.. 50 or so miniature surinam toads take to the water.
Surinam., where this odd toad was first found, is in dutch guiana. His nose is sharply pointed., and his flat, angular body looks like a cardboard cutout. The ordinary toad is more handsome than the surinam but the surinam toad is a better parent than the ordinary toad.