If you’re looking for an answer to the question: “Are frogs reptiles or amphibians?” then you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we dive deep into the question of whether frogs are reptiles or amphibians, and what makes them so…
In the past, both reptiles and amphibians fell under the reptile class. However, since the differences have been discovered, they now fall under their own separate classes of both amphibians on one side, and reptiles on the other. But, is a frog a reptile or amphibian?
In short, frogs are amphibians. Sorry… We don’t mean to spoil the article, but we promise that there’ll be a lot more interesting information in this article still to come!
You can also learn more about the differences between amphibians and reptiles in our post on this topic!
Table of Contents
Is a frog a reptile?
No, a frog is not a reptile as we’ve already discussed. But, why is a frog not a reptile and why is a frog classed as an amphibian? That’s what we’re going to dive into now.
Why is a frog not a reptile?
There are a few traits that clearly show that a frog is not a reptile. The first is that they lay their eggs in the water. Reptiles lay their eggs on land which is one of the main distinction between these two animals.
Another important trait when it comes to a frog’s eggs is that these are made from a jelly-like substance. Reptiles lay eggs with a hard shell and this is something that frogs don’t have the luxury of being able to do.
In most cases, amphibians also lay a lot more eggs than reptiles. Especially when you compare them with frogs! Frogs can lay up to 20,000 eggs in one season which is, of course, a huge number.
There are also some reptiles which do not care for their young and therefore lay a large number of eggs. However, this doesn’t surpass the number laid by certain frog species. Not really a difference, but a nice fact…
Another important reason why a frog is not a reptile is that frogs aren’t born in the same form as they are when they are older. Frogs go through a metamorphosis (change) which turns them from tadpoles into frogs.
Snakes, lizards and other reptiles don’t go through this metamorphosis, and they are born in the same form that they are when they’re grown up.
Something else that these tadpoles have that clearly means they’re not a reptile, is that they have gills which allow them to breathe underwater! (More on how tadpoles breathe in this article.)
Other reasons why frogs aren’t reptiles
There are more reasons than meet the eye which can help you to tell that a frog isn’t a reptile. For example, frogs don’t have multiple neck vertebra. Reptiles have multiple neck vertebra while amphibians like frogs only have 1.
There are also a few others which get a little too specific for the point of this article which we won’t get into…
Why is a frog an amphibian?
In short, because frogs lay jelly-like eggs without a hard shell, they go through a period of metamorphosis from tadpole to frog and they lay their eggs in the water instead of on land. Another reason you could say is that tadpoles have gills whereas reptiles always breathe using lungs (except a few turtle species which use brumation for breathing).
There is one more thing that we haven’t mentioned in this article yet which makes a frog an amphibian and not a reptile, and this is their skin.
A frog’s skin is moist and will dry out if there is no water or damp areas for them to go into. Reptiles generally have hard skin that sometimes has bony edges or even plates on it.
As we’ve said previously, there are other reasons why frogs are classed as amphibians and not as reptiles, but these aren’t things you can generally notice while observing them. There’s a link to our article on the differences between reptiles and amphibians near the top of this post for you to reference.
Conclusion
In this post, we’ve answered the question: Are frogs reptiles or amphibians? We’ve also gone into some of the reasons why frogs are classed as amphibians and why they don’t fall under the reptile class. We hope that you’ve enjoyed this post and have all the information you need!
If there’s anything that you feel is missing from this article about whether a frog is a reptile or amphibian, then please leave a comment or shoot us a message! We’re always looking to improve our reptile resources and really appreciate the feedback!
