Facts about Midwife Toads
Midwife toads are found in most of Europe and northwestern Africa. The back of the midwife toad is covered with small warts. These warts give off a strong smelling poison when the toad is handled or attacked. The poison is so powerful that the toad has few enemies or predators. The poison also helps to keep the egg strings on the male's back safe from attack. Midwife toads can be found in the snows of the Pyrenees, living at heights of 5,000–6,500 feet in areas such as the Néouvielle massif. Its poison is quite strong. A midwife toad's poison can kill an adder in just a few hours. Unlike the thin tongue of many amphibians, the midwife's tongue is round and flattened. Its family name, Discoglossidae, means "round tongue". The midwife toad is in fact a toad-like frog. The Majorcan midwife toad has adapted to the harsh, dry conditions of this Spanish Island. it is found only in deep canyons in the northern mountains. Its body has evolved to become more flattened, which enables the toad to squeeze into narrow crevices in the rocks of its habitat. The only moisture available is in small, rain-filled puddles on ledges. In parts of France midwife toads live in sand dunes by the sea. They share this habitat with natterjack toads. They are known for their parental care: the males carry a string of fertilised eggs on their back. The female expels a strand of eggs, which the male fertilizes externally. He then wraps them around his legs to protect them from predators in the water. When they are ready to hatch, the male wades into shallow water, where he allows the tadpoles to leap out of their eggs. Fossils of these species have also been found in Europe. They are shy, nocturnal animals. During the day, the midwife toad hides under stones and logs or in underground tunnels. During the winter, the common midwife toad hibernates in its hole or in a burrow that has been deserted by a small animal. The midwife toad uses the end of its long, sticky tongue to pick up prey, which includes beetles, crickets, flies, caterpillars, centipedes, and millipedes. Their tadpoles feed on vegetable matter. They chew with tiny, hornyteeth. Five separate species of midwife toad are found across western Europe, northern Africa, and Majorca. Apoptosis, the programmed cell death, was first observed in the developing of the tadpoles of the midwife toads 1842 by Carl Vogt. |
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