Amphiumas have a long body. They are generally grey-black in color. They do have legs but they are very small. Amphiumas can be up to long, their legs are only up to about . It is because of this that they are often mistaken for eels or snakes. They also do not have eyelids or a tongue.
Female amphiumas lay their eggs in wet mud. They then stay coiled around them for about five months, until they hatch. The larvae have external gills. After about four months these external gills disappear and the lungs begin to work.
Amphiumas live in the southeastern part of the United States.
In the past they have lived in more areas. Fossils from the Pleistocene time show that they once lived in Europe.
During the day amphiumas hide in plants. At night they become active and go hunting. Their prey include frogs, snakes, fish, crustaceans, insects and even other amphiumas. Hunting and eating habits are similar to that of the Axolotl. They suck food into their stomachs with vacuum force. They can become aggressive.
There are three amphiuma species. They are different because of the number of toes:
Leiopelmatidae
Leiopelmatidae, or New Zealand and North American primitive frogs, is a family belonging to the suborder Archaeobatrachia. There are only four Leiopelma and two Ascaphus species alive now. Leiopelma are only found in New Zealand. Ascaphus are only found in North America.
Leiopelmatidae have an extra vertebrae. They have the remains of the tail muscles.
When Leiopelmatid jump, they land in a "belly flop". After landing, Ascaphus skids to a halt before recovering.
They are very small frogs, only in length. Most species lay their eggs in moist ground, typically under rocks or plants. After hatching the tadpoles nest in the male's back. They do not need standing or flowing water. Life span may be long at more than 30 years.
Family LEIOPELMATIDAE
Three extinct species are known by subfossil remains, also from New Zealand. They became extinct during the past 1,000 years.
Much older fossils, dating back to the Jurassic, have been found in Argentina, such as "Notobatrachus".
Megophryidae
Megophryidae are a large family of frogs. They live in the warm southeast of Asia, from the Himalaya foothills eastwards, south to Indonesia and the Greater Sunda Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, and going to the Philippines. There are 70-100 species of frog divided between 12 genera. They are commonly called megophryids.
The megophryids are known for their camouflage, especially those that live in forests. They often look like dead leaves. They even have some skin folds that look like leaf veins.
Megophryids range in size from to in length. The adults' tongue is noticeably paddle-shaped. Their tadpoles can be found in a variety of waters, but especially ponds and streams. The tadpoles are very diverse in form because of the variety of habitats they live in.
Family Megophryinidae
Parsley frog
Parsley frogs or Pelodytidae, is a family of order Anura. The family has just one genus, Pelodytes. These frogs live in southwestern Europe and the Caucasus.
Parsley frogs are typical looking frogs. They are closely related to Spadefoot toads and Megophyrids. The parsley frogs are small, smooth skinned frogs. They reach a length of . They are one of the few families of frogs which have more known extinct species and genera (two or three) than living species.
Spadefoot toad
Spadefoot is the name of the following toads:
American spadefoot toads
An American spadefood toad is one of a family of toads known as Scaphiopodidae. They live in North America, in southern Canada and USA south to southern Mexico. Scaphiopodidae is a small family with only seven species.
The American spadefoot toads are of typical shape to most digging frogs. They are round, with short legs and eyes that stick out. This frog has a hard growth on their feet which helps them to dig. They dig backwards into the ground.
The American spadefoot toads live on land when not under ground. They are dully coloured, usually a grey or dull green or brown. This is to help in camouflage.
Notaden
Notaden is a genus of frogs. They live in central and northern Australia. They are a digging frog.
Its body is very round in shape with a short neck. Its pupils are horizontal slits. It has long arms and short, stubby legs. Its fingers do not have webbing and its toes may have little to no webbing. The skin is slightly warty. Because it looks like some species of toads it is often incorrectly called a toad. It lets out a poisonous sticky fluid from its skin when picked up. It lays eggs in chains like some toad species.
Mexican Burrowing Toad
The Mexican burrowing toad ("Rhinophrynus dorsalis") is a frog. They are the only species in the genus Rhinophrynus and the family Rhinophrynidae. These frogs live from the southern Texas through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. They used to live in more places. There were species going as far north as Canada, but these died out in the Oligocene.
The Mexican Burrowing Toad grows to in length. They usually have red spots on its bloated body with a red stripe along the center of its back. It has short legs, and a small, pointed head. Its feet have horny, shovel-like growths that help it in digging. Its eyes are small. The Mexican Burrowing Toad's tongue comes directly out the front of the mouth. In all other frogs it is flipped out.
As the name suggests, the Mexican Burrowing Toad is a burrowing animal. It spends a large part of its life underground. After a large time of rain, it will come out from the soil and lay eggs in water. They will travel up to to find a good water source. Because of the unpredictability of rain, the frog will call and mate during any time of the year. It will dig into soft soil with its short legs once the land has dried up. The egg and tadpole stages of the life cycle are short. The eggs take only a few days to hatch. The tadpoles develop over one to three months.
The call is a loud, low pitched "wh-o-o-o-a". When it is calling or scared, the body becomes inflated. The Mexican Burrowing Toad eats insects, mostly ants and termites.
Tukeit Hill Frog
The Tukeit Hill Frog ("Allophryne ruthveni") is one of the two described species in the genus "Allophryne". The other one is "Allophryne resplendens". It is the only member of the subfamily Allophryninae, a clade recently placed under the family Centrolenidae These frogs live in Guyana, Venezuela, Surinam, Brazil and Bolivia. The holotype was discovered at Tukeit Hill, below Kaieteur Falls, Guyana. This is the reason for the common English name.
The Tukeit Hill Frog is a small frog. It can have different colors. They are either black, with stripes and spots which can be golden or dull yellow, or a dull yellow or golden stomach surface, with black strips and spots. It has a flat body, and small flat head. The toe pads are large, wider than the fingers.
The Tukeit Hill Frog spends some time low in the trees, 1–3 metres, and some of the time on the ground. This frog lives in sparse forest, avoiding cleared land.
Aromobatidae
The Aromobatidae are a family of poison dart frogs. They live in Central and South America. By late 2019, 126 species in three subfamilies and five genera had been described.
Arthroleptidae
The Arthroleptidae is a family of frogs found in sub-Saharan Africa. They are known as squeakers because of their high-pitched call. They are small, less than in length. They live on land mostly in leaf litter on the forest floor. They do not have tadpoles. They lay their eggs on the ground.
Some species hatch already completely metamorphosed into the adult form, others still have tails when they hatch.
Arthroleptidae is separated into two sub-families: Arthroleptinae and Leptopelinae. Some think these are separate families.
The two sub-families have these genera:
Saddleback toad