The Evolution of Frogs

long before the first dinosaurs would evolve, our semi aquatic ancestors started to make the necessary evolutionary leaps to live on the land permanently. But at this time and for a while after this, most of the largest and most dominant animals around still breathe through their skin when it is wet and still laid their eggs in the water meaning they couldn't spend too long on land. And one lineage still alive today descended from these animals, the amphibians. Many amphibians still live in a very similar way to their ancestors but one group took a very different evolutionary path way, adapting to become quite adept out of the water and also evolving to leap, frogs
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Sources:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26711....
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21210...
bioone.org/journals/fieldiana...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
www.eurekalert.org/news-relea...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

[@iwasadeum]

A small request... Can we please get the scientific names of animals displayed on screen as you say them? I have had some difficulty tracking down some animals on the web for further informational due to my general ignorance of scientific pronunciation. Thanks for giving me a KZbin channel dedicated purely to scientific knowledge!

[@hph1488]

Sign up to be a patron otherwise stfu

[@Darkside-origin]

You could put on subtitles

[@thomasbruinsma]

@@Darkside-origin automatic subtitles are not known for their scientific accuracy lol

[@Darkside-origin]

@@thomasbruinsma fair point

[@Galenus1234]

​@@Darkside-origin Imho the giant flightless birds, that MothMedia had made a video about a while ago, became ever more terrifying and epic by the automatic youtube subtitles calling them "forrest rockets".

[@ShmooZeroOmega]

"Beelzebufo" is, by far, the best scientific name I've ever heard.

[@johnelliott7850]

I used to keep spawn to froglets every year, releasing them down our local woods, to help keep up their numbers. Have always been fascinated by frogs. Nice, informative video.

[@bunlocke]

This video has been out for 8 minutes and I'm already watching it. I drop everything for your videos, man. They're great.

[@MrEtanaka]

Exactly! I put all of his videos in a playlist. I basically listen to his videos everyday.

[@ixcutamp8059]

Hey, I know it's unrelated but I want to know what's the music playing in the background called? I've been trying to find it from a long time ago, but I haven't been able to.

[@serus920]

Same

[@origaminosferatu3357]

Was gonna like but you're at 69 already and it feels wrong somehow.

[@asithlawd884]

No facts ✊🏾

[@danielalexandre89]

I'd also be interested in knowing how they got their metamorphosis life cycle and if other ancient amphibians possessed it I always found intriguing how animals evolve to change so dramatically during their lifetime

[@christopheb9221]

I'd guess its as simple as their development has turned into stages based on age or environment so hormones. if you look at how a body changes from the embryo on instead of a continuous change there was an advantage to pause and that they had already evolved to living on land. there are some frogs(or toads?) that dont have a tadpole stage and some salamanders that will live in water unless their pond drys out. I think unfortunately can only make guesses of past based on extant species since you need to watch an alive animal to know this unless really lucky to find a group of one species from many different ages and that preserved soft tissue and even then.

[@luckas221a]

logically, the first thought would be that they probably did have the same reproductuon and life cycle (egg, tadpole, gradual transformation into adult form), but then you think about species of snake that don't even lay eggs and instead give live birth, and you have the platypus which is an egg-laying mammal... so it's probably hard to know for certain, since as hard as it is to find adult fossils of this creatures it must be even more difficult to find infants or eggs preserved in some way

[@MrJakeypakey]

Layman's opinion here, but it seems likely to me that amphibians have always had metamorphosis as part of their life cycles. One big (if not the biggest) evolutionary shift from amphibian to non-amphibian was the development of the amniotic egg, which uncoupled reproduction from the aquatic environment. Reproduction in water is therefore intrinsically linked with amphibians as a group, and it thus seems reasonable to assume that it has always been advantageous for them to retain aquatic morphology in the stage just after birth before developing terrestrial morphology in later stages.

[@danielalexandre89]

@@MrJakeypakey I understand that and you are right But my though was more in the line of, somewhere in the distant past, there was an animal, amphibian or not, that had to resort to this type of dramatic transformation during its lifetime and afterwards passed it on to amphibians I just have this enormous curiosity of what made this enormous change in physical and behaviour on an animal which normally others take millions of years So far no one seems to have an answer sadly

[@Wilbtube]

@@danielalexandre89 Because their eggs have no shells. This is where embryology becomes part of the conversation. Most vertebrate embryos follow the amphibian metamorphosis in utero, while the stages of amphibian embryos concur with the stages of fish embryos, and the earliest stages of the newts concur with newly hatched fish. What happened is that amphibians were able to develop adults for the land, but still needed water for their newts - the lungs being a later stage addition. They keep adding new features that rely on lungs, but they cannot expedite the development of the lungs to an earlier stage in their development, and they cannot make that happen inside the eggs - as the eggs are shell-less and therefore need water anyway. Only when the animals manage to include more metamorphosis before the hatching, do they lose this necessity. That relies on an egg shell. (A.k.a. reptilian). We even find parallels of this phenomenon in insects. The most primitive ones (dragonsflies, mayflies) still have most of their lives under water, only the adult stage is lived in the air. Later insects discover new ways of needing less water: burying their eggs in soft / decaying tissue, larvae that can move on land (no more gills), etc. It´s not that something made them change into land animals during their lifetime, it´s rather that they hadn´t found a way / couldn´t find a way to start life anywhere but in the water - hence needing lots of metamorphosis to happen after hatching.

[@dmullinax1000]

This channel was like a gateway drug. I started learning about the carboniferous period, the permian, the mesozoic, the cenezoic, started listening to other similar content creators and got me hooked. I'm fascinated with this, speculative evolution and cryptozoology. I love this stuff.

[@zackakai5173]

Careful, soon you'll be moving up to the really hard stuff like binging all of AronRa's Systematic Classification of Life

[@isaacb725]

Finally!!! Last week I was searching like crazy for a up to date overview of our current understanding of frog evolution, they're one of the most unique animals on the planet

[@Floris_VI]

This channel is so damn good, i actually learn so much every time you upload! Thanks for making such informative content!

[@Funkiotologist]

I love the music you use in your videos. It helps create such a sense of wonder as you talk about a world that has long passed. It is amazing that this all truly existed, we could have gone our lives not knowing these marvels even existed. Life is truly fascinating

[@edwardkilarsky9244]

Does anyone know where I can find the music that are used in these videos?

[@Funkiotologist]

@@edwardkilarsky9244 can’t say I do, hope someone’s able to help find it tho 🤙

[@neilsmith52]

I wonder if the shape of the diplocaulus skull was for hunting. What I imagine is that it would shoot forward creating lift to do an upward arcing ambush from below. Mind you I know nothing about this animal aside from this video.

[@quitlife9279]

Probably more likely than it using its skull to bash its prey into submission.

[@megasupreme9985]

@@quitlife9279 Is this a joke?

[@megasupreme9985]

@yo yo oh I don't remember why I said this tbh, maybe I just misread the comment lmfao

[@puppieslovies]

The paper that proposes the head generated lift also concludes that with an open mouth the amount of lift does not decrease significantly, so it could effectively chase prey while rising Then again this was in 1980 and I would be happier with the result if somebody did a modern computer simulation

[@zoeyarmstrong2698]

Great video as always! I think it'd be interesting to hear more about the evolution of crabs and barnacles!

[@kellydalstok8900]

Everything evolves into crabs

[@SupersonicHornet]

I’m guessing crabs and barnacles used to be bananas

[@ricardoludwig4787]

Which crab evolution? It keeps happening, they can't be stopped

[@dmullinax1000]

LOL with the bananas. I remember these topics from the Hovind vs. Ra debates.

[@Intergalatikk]

@@horseandcart5978 Both of which have ZERO scientific support

[@daniell1483]

Ever since I started looking into ancient animals, the temnospondyls have been a group that has been of most interest to me. The idea of amphibians the size of a crocodile, probably filling a similar niche, is just crazy cool! Having seen the fossilized heads of the bigger animals in the group filled with huge needle teeth looks so intimidating. Not the sort of fellow you'd want to run into in a forest somewhere, had they survived to the present day.

[@fatterperdurabo42069]

Especially given the insane aggression levels and almost complete prey indiscretion we can observe in some modern amphibians compared to the more selective and usually defensive attitudes of reptiles. Like imagine an animal with the size, power and ambush ability of a crocodilian with the prey response of a bullfrog.

[@daniell1483]

@@fatterperdurabo42069 Exactly! There are a couple of channels on YT just demonstrating what a bullfrog will try and eat, it's crazy what they will fit in their mouth. Imagining an apex predator with THAT kind of attitude is terrifying.

[@stefanostokatlidis4861]

In modern amphibians, aquatic or terrestrial living is more or less a function of heterochrony. When they keep juvenile characteristics, they usually end up as minimally ossified thin-skinned aquatic forms like axolotls or mudpuppies. If they develop adult characteristics early, they end up heavily ossified, strong muscled terrestrial forms, like horned frogs or African bullfrogs. The latter two genera have even lost the characteristic pedicellate teeth of most modern amphibians and have unified and unicuspid ones instead. A few heavily ossified frogs have even bony armour under the skin and caecilians have rudimentary scales. There is quite a lot of variability in modern amphibians that people don’t recognize. Probably if they had less competition, they could evolve again the larger and more heavily ossified forms. They have the genetic toolkit to do this even today. Also it would be interesting to make a video about the evolution of frog hearing. Ancient lineages of frogs today, like the fire-bellied toads, use a quite different method of hearing and don’t have external ears. In the frogs that evolve them, external ears got lost and reappeared many times.

[@gracetriendl721]

Frogs are by far my favourite animals, and I have a little south American horned frog myself! This video was great, I learned a lot of new things even tho I already spent quite some time researching frog evolution. Thank you :D

[@fwogboi]

Frig

[@LowellMorgan]

Whoever named them frogs nailed it. Those things are definitely frogs.

[@Burt1038]

I googled "history of France" and this came up.

[@Alberad08]

Thanks a lot for sharing! BTW in 9:49 you confuse the African bullfrog with the Goliath frog or "African Goliath Bullfrog", being actually the largest extant frog - at least one and a half time larger as the first one.

[@stefanostokatlidis4861]

It may not be the largest, but the African bullfrog is certainly the strongest macropredatory frog for its size.

[@erichtomanek4739]

I have to say it: It's not easy being Green. Your video is highly educational with excellent visuals and well presented.

[@iamTheSnark]

♫♪ But green is the colour of spring ♫♪

[@JackRoney]

One thing that might be worth adding is the large number of frog species today that have direct-developing young--eliminating their reliance on pools of water to breed.

[@billquigley6556]

I love the sploosh in the intro.

[@StarMcCosmos]

Never clicked on a video so fast, keep doin what you’re doin my guy. This is high quality content and I am here for it :)

[@mattgrandich3977]

I love the evolution videos, there’s a frog on my porch so I’m going to show it this video.

[@satyr1349]

As always your content is amazing, thoroughly professional and beats mores established channels at their game. Great topic as well! Thankyou for all the effort.

[@ir3188]

I don't know how you're not the most popular paleontology/ biology youtuber

[@keiththehobo6673]

I don't know if you've done it already but I'd love to see giraffes next! These videos are so great and honestly just amazing

[@lisanidog8178]

This is fascinating! I watch a KZbinr who has frogs, toads and salamanders and seeing this evolution makes me appreciate her pets more. I wondered how frogs came to be.

[@gy2gy246]

Those were stock photos.

[@lisanidog8178]

@@gy2gy246 doesn’t matter.

[@yamatohekatsue9143]

Hey small request that may be a bit of trouble, I love listening to educational videos when falling asleep but your video as awesome as they are sadly don't have a comprehensive play list any way you can sort a few into playlist like you did for the mammals videos

[@areoladan5580]

Yes. I needed some frog content.

[@somerubal9271]

The evolution of the parrots 🦜

[@Aiii_me6682]

I like that you only talk about evolution

[@nathanzimet434]

I think it would be cool if when you introduce a species you also showed a map of where their fossils have been found

[@zacharywilson2399]

Another entertaining and educational masterpiece

[@LeggoMyGekko]

“...leaps and bounds...” ...hehe

[@Rose-yx6jq]

Alternative title: the evolution of the friend shape.

[@julianshepherd2038]

Frogs. Top animals.

[@WasMrUB40]

Frog evolution has come in leaps and bounds....I see what you did there.

[@ryansmith-sounddesigner7831]

At 10:05, I believe you were meant to say “South American horned frogs” but you have done such amazing work on this video.

[@Phoenix-MX1]

"They're turning the frogs gay"

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

Wonderful vid! I love your stuff. Always well researched and informative. Thank you.

[@Uniqueusername2]

So glad I get notifications when you post

[@ixcutamp8059]

For real, sometimes KZbin doesn't care if you hit the bell or not, it only notifies what it wants

[@Fede_99]

Really nice, I really like your "the evolution of" videos. I just would to point out that as far as I know the most recent paper about Triadobatrachus concluded that it was probably not capable of jumping and it would've moved in a more walking ondulating way similar to salamanders

[@nonyabusniss7777]

i was not ready for that much information related to frogs and their evolution in only 11 minutes. nice

[@brunobucciaratiswife]

Could you put the name of the creatures shown on the screen when they appear? I’d love to know their names! Even if they’re just random images and not the animal of focus!

[@nutmeg6782]

I love your videos man, you're voice is very soothing you deserve more support

[@reillyspitzfaden]

Thanks! I’ve been wanting to hear one about frogs for a while

[@EyebelieveTheNarrative]

Someone needs to hire this dude. These videos are on point.

[@nesquickest9605]

Love your videos have binged watched all of them and always keen to see more!

[@travisbicklejr]

Outstanding video as always!

[@alfredwiborggustafsson2670]

Fantastically interesting video as always. I have now watched every single one on your channel. Looking forward to see what your next exciting topic will be!

[@JoseLopez-jr4re]

Is it just me that hits the like button before I can even skip the add playing at the beginning? I love every single video

[@StepBaum]

Another really well done video, thank you :)

[@tranquilcoast]

This is what I LOVE to see on KZbin. Super fun videos

[@Charlie._.Niron22]

Might I Say, Your Voice is perfect for a Documentary! Really good Video, Well Balanced, and kept it interesting throughout the Video!

[@jakobraahauge7299]

Please make a playlist, so I can just hit play and vegetate on the coach for a couple of hours 🥰

[@Anuchan]

I love the amount of research you do. I always learn something new.

[@chilldude30]

I've learnt so much from your channel. And I appreciate nature so much better thanks to you. The presentation is also always understated which is much appreciated as KZbin can be too bombastic.

[@angelicagaldos]

Thank you for the video. I've always wondered about frog evolution

[@vibes951]

With some KZbin videos, 14 minutes can seem boring but yours always manage to keep me intrigued. Love it ❤️

[@specreaper4543]

Thank you for the information and calming commentary

[@tylerball665]

Why does this narrator melt my … body.

[@watchout5508]

Yesterday I was cutting the lawn and by luck noticed a little froggy in the grass! He was smaller than my thumb so luck must have guided my eyes to him! Anyway after struggling to catch him in the tall grass (he's very wet), i finally gave him to dad and he took him back to the bush! Frogs are so cute!

[@zefft.f4010]

*f r o g e*

[@Amira_Phoenix]

Frogs made evolutionary leaps...I see what you did there

[@jonathanbehm9781]

Love your videos man, much love

[@theoccidilian4896]

Great! I’m an anurologist, and this is spot-on. And I learned a lot

[@dilihimer5813]

Dudes voice is so relaxing and these videos are interesting too. Nice job 👍🏻

[@rogersfc]

Love your channel and your videos, excelent overall. Today some swallows arrived from their migration from africa to my hometown in northern Spain and I think they deserve one of your videos. Their adaptations are incredible, one of the most fascinating flying styles, the nests, how they eat and drink while flying... They may share most part of their evolution with most birds but the lifestyle they have developed and in latest stages makes swallows one of my favorites birds. Thank you for your labour!

[@quixotika3232]

2 weeks for a short video like this is brutal when the content is this good man

[@ryangarcia7250]

Ironic I searched for this very topic last night! Right on! Thanks MothLight 🙏🏼

[@Valdagast]

What kills me is that I'll never be able to see these creatures in the wild.

[@tbmavenger71]

Thanks moth light!

[@jorgerangel2390]

I love your content, thanks!

[@1874WL]

Beelzabuffo is a fucking excellent name

[@RonJKuschel1901]

Great video really enjoyed this one👍👍👍

[@TheRukisama]

I always look forward to your videos! And frogs are awesome!

[@Schnabeltassentier]

Literally learned this today at uni in a lecture about the evolution of vertebrates!

[@Langharig_Tuig]

Frogs are my favourite animals and damn does this episode make me happy! Thanks!

[@jasonvoorhees7610]

Youve got a brilliant channel

[@teaqeri]

great video as always ✊🏽

[@dansmachine9360]

Concise and informative, very well done

[@claytonallen5428]

Thank you for doing the video about frogs!!

[@Mandicke]

Great video of my favourite animal

[@crazy_mind-ox8if]

Sup yall. Love this content

[@awesomemccoolname7111]

My wife hates, absolutely hates, frogs. I'm going to enjoy sending this to her. (She is freaked out by how they move, she isn't ever mean to them, she runs away)

[@Cobbido]

Your wife tortures frogs for fun doesn't she?

[@ixcutamp8059]

I do the same with insects. Don't know why I'm so scared of them to be honest.

[@awesomemccoolname7111]

@@Cobbido no, she waves her hands around and runs away. It's funny.

[@awesomemccoolname7111]

@@ixcutamp8059 we all have something like that. I hate dusty or chalky surfaces. I absolutely detest them. I can't have flour or anything on my hands. No idea of why.

[@Mandicke]

Whilst making fun of people is cool Frogs are so cute

[@1couchy]

Best KZbin account in years... please do evolution of more insects and arachnids and bugs and creepy crawlies

[@1874WL]

One of the best channels

[@spaguettoltd.7933]

Ah yes, the three types of amphibians: frogs, salamanders, and… Sicilians..?

[@zooker7938]

Yes.

[@ANTSEMUT1]

I knew I wasn't the only one to notice that.

[@kevingray4980]

"In other ways, frogs have come leaps and bounds."

[@lassebirkhenriksen]

i would like a video on the evolution of crabs

[@Eckendenker]

which ones? :D

[@lassebirkhenriksen]

@@Eckendenker crabs?

[@KhanMann66]

@@lassebirkhenriksen Too generic. Need to specify.

[@lassebirkhenriksen]

Just crabs in general

[@Eckendenker]

@@lassebirkhenriksen Crabs are one of the most fascinating cases of convergent evolution. Nature actually can't help but evolve into crabs over and over again. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation

[@stupidalltomorrowsfan7420]

I like frogs, their so cute :)

[@several9286]

11:06 "in other ways they have come leaps and bounds" i audibly chuckled

[@marietteberndsen9587]

Beautifull animals, can watch them for hours

[@costlylimejacoborivasperez8500]

I wanted this video, a topic not very well known, but really cool

[@sassa82]

Great video!

[@zaubergarden6900]

is such a cute name beelzebufo funny wordplay

[@efebrahim]

i love this channel, it's the best

[@eopurple3423]

Nice video bro, new subscriber

[@peachyt2507]

"Evolutionary leaps..." HA HA, nice one

[@sarielle85]

The largest living frog is the goliath frog, that can have a length of 34 cm and a weight of 3.5 kg. If they were kept as pets, overweight specimen of 10 lb or 4.5 kg would most likely exist.

[@planescaped]

Imagine having a pet amphibian the size of a large dog hopping around behind you at the park. :P

[@juanjoyaborja.3054]

At that size it wouldn’t be able to hop. The Chinese giant salamander is bigger than a dog, but it’s very slow and loses moisture too easily outside of water.

[@matthewmead2374]

Evolutionary "leaps" is right!