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Western water-holding frog facts for kids

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Western water-holding frog
Scientific classification
Genus:
Cyclorana
Species:
occidentalis
Synonyms
  • Ranoidea occidentalis (Anstis, Price, Roberts, Catalano, Hines, Doughty, and Donnellan, 2016)
  • Cyclorana occidentalis (Anstis, Price, Roberts, Catalano, Hines, Doughty, and Donnellan, 2016)

The western water-holding frog is a special type of frog that lives in Australia. Scientists are still figuring out its exact scientific name. They sometimes call it Ranoidea occidentalis or Cyclorana occidentalis. This frog is found in Western Australia.

Western Water-Holding Frog

This amazing frog has some unique features. It is known for living in very dry places. It can survive by holding water in its body.

What Does It Look Like?

The western water-holding frog has a flat body. Adult male frogs grow to be about 6.0 cm long. Adult female frogs are a bit larger, reaching about 7.0 cm long.

This frog has webbed feet. This helps it move around easily in water. Even though it lives in dry areas, it spends a lot of time in water.

A Wide Head

Scientists have noticed that this frog has a very wide head. Because of this, they believe it might eat other frogs. It might catch them when they come to lay eggs. This happens in the same temporary ponds where the western water-holding frog lays its own eggs.

Life Cycle and Reproduction

These frogs have their young when it rains. The female frog lays her eggs in bodies of water. These water sources often dry up very quickly. She can lay as many as 500 eggs at one time!

Tadpoles and Young Frogs

When the eggs hatch, the tadpoles are quite large. They can be up to 8.0 cm long. Once these tadpoles grow into young frogs, they are about 3.5 cm long.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Cyclorana occidentalis para niños

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