16 Australian Geographic
F
EET CAN TELL you plenty about the habits of frogs, and reflect
amazing adaptations, says Dr Jodi Rowley, at the Australian
Museum, who is studying species from Australia and South-East
Asia. A spectacular example of this occurs in flying frogs (e.g. 1, 9, 12,
14), which have enormously enlarged hands and feet, used as parachutes
to glide down from the treetops. Toe-pads are another adaptation to
climbing (2, 3, 4, 7, 13, 14), and hanging on in swift-flowing streams
(11). Webbed feet in more aquatic species (5, 8, 10, 11) can be used for
swimming. Other frogs with slender toes (6, 15) have no need to swim
or climb, and instead stick to the forest floor and slow, shallow streams.
“Differences in the feet are useful in identifying species,” Jodi says.
“The colour and extent of webbing, the shape and size of toe-pads and
the length of the toes are all used to tell one species from another.”Best foot
forward
Natural history
Small differences in the hands and feet of
frogs are clues to big differences in behaviour.
TOP ROW: Rhacophorus feae, Rhacophorus sp., Polypedates leucomystax
SECOND ROW: Rhacophorus sp., Odorrana chapaensis, Leptolalax sp., Kurixalus sp.
THIRD ROW: Odorrana sp., Rhacophorus kio, Amolops sp., Amolops ricketti
BOTTOM ROW: Rhacophorus sp., Polypedates leucomystax, Rhacophorus annamensis, Quasipaa sp.1914271311610153(^45)
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JODI ROWLEY