Contributor: Samantha Penna. Lesson ID: 12110
You might think baby frogs look like frogs but smaller, just like most animals. But they actually look like -- well, it's hard to describe what they look like! See if you can tell as you watch them!
What does a baby frog look like? Don't jump to conclusions; you might be surprised!
Frogs can be found almost everywhere in the world!
That means there are frogs that come in different sizes, colors, and patterns. There are lots of interesting frogs out there!
Frogs start off as little eggs. This is the egg stage of their life cycle. Mother frogs lay their jelly-like eggs in wet places or directly in water. Generally, a mother frog will lay her eggs close to land or aquatic plants. The mother frog will lay many eggs — sometimes more than four thousand at a time! — because most of the eggs will not survive. Many animals eat frog eggs. The more eggs a frog lays, the more of a chance some of the babies will have to survive. The eggs are laid in big groups. These eggs will take anywhere between three to twenty-one days to hatch. Below, you can see many different examples of groups of frog eggs (also known as frog spawn):
Most frog eggs look very similar.
Share your answers with your parent or teacher. Take a look at another picture of frog eggs.
Share your answer with your parent or teacher:
You can see something growing inside of the eggs. Out of the egg comes a tadpole. The tadpole will eat the egg that it hatched out of. The little tadpole isn’t strong enough to do much after it has hatched. It will swim to a plant in the water and it will hold on to this plant. It will float along with the plant until it becomes stronger. After seven to ten days have gone by, the little tadpole will be ready to swim! It will use its tail to swim around. During this time, it will feed on small plants, called "algae." Below, you can see pictures of tadpoles. Discuss with your parent or teacher how frogs and tadpoles look different from each other:
You could see the tiny tadpoles holding on to plants and branches. This is what they do before they can swim.
Share your answers with your parent or teacher. You learned about the first two stages of a frog’s life cycle.
In the Got It? section, you will watch a video of tadpoles swimming!