What Do We Know About The Life Cycle Of Amphibians?

To identify an animal as an amphibian, it should have each of these characteristics:

• Amphibians have a backbone. They are vertebrates.
• Amphibians are cold-blooded. They cannot regulate their own body temperature.
• Amphibians spend at least part of their lives in water and on land.
• Amphibians do not have scales and their skin is permeable (molecules and gases can pass through).
• Amphibians have gills for at least part of their lives. Some species have gills only as larvae, while others can have gills throughout their lives.
• Most amphibians go through metamorphosis.

Amphibians include animals like frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. These animals begin life as eggs. Animals that lay eggs are said to be oviparous. Amphibians do not look after their eggs, the parents leave their young to fend for themselves. 

Watch the clip below to learn more about amphibians.

Activity: Using your understanding of the main characteristics of the mammal's life cycle from last week and the amphibian's this week, I would like you to compare the similarities and differences between their life cycles. You can present this in a table with 2 columns, (one for each animal) and 2 rows, one for the similarities and one for the differences in their life cycles.