Steven Stricklin, ape 11, of Pasadena, Texas, for his question:
How does the Surinam toad raise its young?
Toads, of course, are amphibians who developed from eggs through a fishy tadpole stage to become air breathing adults. In several species, the male parent shelters the eggs and tadpoles in capsules attached to his back. The developing youngsters of the Surinam toad are sheltered in pockets on the back of the female. This toad also has a built in lure to bait his food and looks like no other amphibian in the world.
Surinam, also known as Dutch Guiana, is a small country along the Atlantic shores of South America, just north of the equator. This is the home of the Surinam toad, though he also lives in neighboring countries. He spends most of his life spread flat on the bottom of a pond or stream, looking as though a heavy foot has stepped on him and left him there. To a close observer, he is obviously alive, but he appears to be lying upside dorm. Certainly when the female's back bulges with tadpole pockets she appears to be relaxing, with her tummy facing upward.
When time comes to reproduce, the skin on her back becomes thick and spongy. As she lays her egps, the male helps her to place them on this comfortable mattress, pushing each one doom into the soft tissue. The skin and the egg capsule form a lid to seal each egg, inside its personal pocket. There it stays beside 100 or more siblings, safely protected while the embryo develops through its fishy tadpole stage. After an incubation period of 2 1/2 months or more, the youngsters come forth looking like miniature copies of their parents.
He would not win a beauty contest, but the Surinam toad has several unique and very useful features. Each finger has a four pointed tip like a star. These fingerless are sensitive food detectors. As he squats on the bottom, they are spread flat on each side of his mouth. He needs them to grab and stuff in food because he does not have the usualt:amphibian's long specialized tongue. In fact, the Surinam toad is tongueless.
The long toes on his hind feet are.webbed together. They form very strong paddles and when he chooses to travel he can swim very fast. As a rule, we class the water loving tailless amphibians as frogs and the landlubbers as toads. Perhaps the Surinam toad should be called a frog for he rarely leaves the water willingly. On land he is very clumsy and almost helpless.
You might mistake him for a cardboard cut out, but you would never mistake him for any other toad or frog. His tiny eyes are on top of a head shaped like a wide pointed triangle. From his nose dangles a wormy flap of skin, which he dangles to entice curious fish within grabbing distance.