Amphibia

Definition: Amphibia

Amphibia

Noun

1. Frogs; toads; newts; salamanders; caecilians.

Date "Amphibia" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1827. (references)

Synonym: Amphibia

Synonym: class Amphibia (n). (additional references)

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Specialty Definition: Amphibia

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The class Amphibia consists of all tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) that do not have amniotic eggs. Amphibians generally spend part of their time on land, but they do not have the adaptations to an entirely terrestrial existence found in most other modern tetrapods (amniotes). There are about 3000 living species of amphibians.

History of amphibians

Amphibians developed with the characteristics of pharyngeal slits/gills, a dorsal nerve cord, a notochord, and a post-anal tail at different stages of their life. They have persisted since the dawn of tetrapods 390 million years ago in the Devonian period, when they were the first four-legged animals to develop lungs. During the following Carboniferous period they also developed the ability to walk on land to avoid aquatic competition and predation while allowing them to travel from water source to water source. As a group they maintained the status of the dominant animal for nearly 75 million years. Throughout their history they have ranged in size from the 15 foot long DevonianIchthyostega to the 1 centimeter long Psyllophryne didactyla, commonly named Brazilian Gold Frog. Amphibians have mastered almost every climate on earth from the hottest deserts to the frozen arctic, and have adapted to climatic change with ease.

Solomon Berg Martin, Biology
Duellman/Trueb, Biology of Amphibians

Classification

Traditionally the amphibians are taken to include all tetrapods that are not amniotes. Recent amphibians all belong to a single subgroup of these, called the Lissamphibia. Recently there has been a tendency to restrict the class Amphibia to the Lissamphibia, i.e. to exclude tetrapods that are not more closely related to modern forms than they are to modern reptiles, birds, and mammals.

There are three modern orderss:

Order Urodela or Caudata (salamanders): 350 species
Order Anura (frogs and toads) (in Superorder Salientia): 3,700 species
Order Gymnophiona or Apoda (caecilians): 170 species

Authorities disagree on whether Salientia is a Superorder that includes the order Anura, or whether Anura is a sub-order of the order Salientia. In effect Salientia includes all the Anura plus a single Triassic proto-frog species, Triadobatrachus massinoti. Practical considerations seem to favour using the former arrangement now.

Reproduction

For the purpose of reproduction all amphibians are bound to water. Several species have adapted to arid and semi-arid environments, but most of them need water to lay their eggs. The larvae breathe with exterior gills. After hatching they start to transform gradually to the adult's appearance. This process is called metamorphosis. Typically, the animals then leave the water and become terrestrial adults, but there are some exceptions to this general way of reproduction.

The most obvious part of the amphibian metamorphosis is the formation of four legs in order to support the body on land. But there are several other changes:

The gills are replaced by other respiratory organs, e.g. lungs.
The skin changes and develops glands to avoid dehydration
The eyes get eyelids and adapt to vision outside the water
An eardrum is developed to lock the middle ear

External reference

Amphibian

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Amphibia."

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Crosswords: Amphibia

English words defined with "Amphibia": amphibian, Amphibiology, amphibious, Amphipneust, Apoda, Autostylic ♦ Caducibranchiate, class Amphibia, Cryptobranchiata ♦ Derotremata ♦ Ichthyopsida ♦ order Stegocephalia, order Stereospondyli ♦ Perennibranchiate, Pneumogastric nerve ♦ Rorippa amphibia ♦ Salamandroidea, Sphenethmoid bone, Stegocephalia, Stereospondyli ♦ Vertebrated. (references)

Specialty definitions using "Amphibia": Biliverdine ♦ Chromatophores ♦ Opisthorchis, Organizers, Embryonic ♦ tail-less amphibians, toads, tree toads. (references)

Etymologies containing "Amphibia": Amphibium. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Amphibia" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Latin (amphibians).

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Commercial Usage: Amphibia

Domain	Title
Books	Fauna of Australia: Amphibia & Reptilia (Fauna of Australia Series , Vol 2A) (reference) Introduction to Amphibia (reference) Physiology of the amphibia (reference) Plathyhelminth Parasites of Amphibia (reference) The Biology of the Amphibia. (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Apnoea & Amphibia (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Amphibia

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Usage Frequency: Amphibia

"Amphibia" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Amphibia" is used about 5 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	5	157,705

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Amphibia

Expressions using "Amphibia": class Amphibia ♦ Rorippa amphibia. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Amphibia

Language		Translations for "Amphibia"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		amfib (amphibian, amphibious). (various references)

Arabic		‏البرمائيات. (various references)

Bulgarian		земноводни животни, амфибии. (various references)

French		amphibiens (amphibians), amphibie (amphibian, amphibious). (various references)

Greek		βατραχία, αμφιβία. (various references)

Hebrew		�"ו חיים. (various references)

Hungarian		kétéltûek. (various references)

Italian		anfibi (amphibians). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		両�"�類 (amphibian), 両棲類 (amphibian). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		りょうせいるい (amphibian). (various references)

Korean		양서류 (Batrachian). (various references)

Manx		daa-veaghee. (various references)

Pig Latin		amphibiaay

Portuguese		anfíbios (amphibians). (various references)

Romanian		amfibii. (various references)

Russian		амфибии. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		amfibija. (various references)

Spanish		anfibio (amphibian, amphibious). (various references)

Turkish		amfibi hayvanlar, suda ve karada yaşayabilen hayvanlar. (various references)

Ukranian		земноводні, амфібії. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations: Amphibia

Derivations
	Words beginning with "Amphibia": amphibian, amphibians. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Amphibia

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-b-h-i-i-m-p"
	-3 letters: abamp, bimah, iambi.
	-4 letters: amah, amia, bima, iamb, impi, pima.
	-5 letters: aah, aba, aha, aim, ama, ami, amp, baa, bah, bam, bap, ham, hap, him, hip, imp, map, mib, pah, pam, phi, pia.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-b-h-i-i-m-p"
	+1 letter: amphibian.
	+2 letters: amphibians.
	+4 letters: amphibrachic, amphisbaenic.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.