Frog Skeleton: Must-Know Facts On Frog's Body Revealed For Kids!

If you thought that tiny squishy frogs don't have bones, then you're wrong.

Frogs and toads have many bones in their bodies. Frogs in total have 24 main bone structures made up of a total of 50 bones.

The head of a frog has evolved quite a lot. Their mouth houses their long tongues that help them catch food with ease.

They also have very small-sized teeth on their upper jaw. Frogs, in general, don't have any teeth on their lower jaw. Each foot of each leg of a frog is webbed to move in water with ease, but the bones of their toes on a leg are similar to humans.

Read on to know more about the frog skeleton and the rest of their anatomy. If you like this article, then also check out frog facts and fly eyes.

Do frogs have an endoskeleton or exoskeleton?

Frogs don't have an exoskeleton. They instead have an endoskeleton that protects them from the inside. As we all know, frogs are amphibians that belong to the subphylum Vertebrata. Vertebrata or vertebrates are animals that possess a spine, so frogs do have an endoskeleton.

The word 'endo' of 'endoskeleton' means 'inside,' and the word 'exo' of 'exoskeleton' means 'external.' The living beings with an endoskeleton have an internal skeletal system that protects them from the inside, like fish, humans, and other mammals. They usually have a spine and other bones in their body that protect their internal organs.

Frogs have a musculoskeletal system with a skull, front and back legs, spine, muscles, soft tissues, tendons, and more. Frogs start to develop their bones after about 6-12 weeks, so if not all, they have at least some bones from a young age.

Do tadpoles have skeletons?

No, tadpoles do not have bones or a bony skeletal system. Tadpoles rather have a notochord and cartilaginous skeleton that develops into the bones or the bony skeleton that a frog has.

Other than a very few frog species, most tadpoles are known to be entirely aquatic. Like fish that live in water, tadpoles have tails, gills, and lateral lines, which they lose later during their metamorphosis to make the body of a frog more suitable to live on land.

Along with these, in this stage, the tadpoles have a notochord and a cartilaginous skeleton.

This means that they have a skull and a form of flexible rod made of cartilage that runs from the front of the tadpole to the back. These change into bony skeletons around 6-12 weeks later through metamorphosis.

How is the skeleton of a human the same as a frog skeleton, and how it's different?

The skeleton of a frog and a human have many similarities as well as differences between them. They both have a skull, limbs, and a spinal column. Although frogs lack ribs, the number of vertebra on a frog's spinal column is less than a human's.

Legs: a frog has four legs. Similar to a human, a frog has a bone on its upper arm.

A human has two bones on the lower part of the arm, starting from their elbow leading to their wrist. Whereas, in a frog, those bones are fused into one. Similarly, the upper part of a frog's leg is the same as a human's.

However, the two bones a human has on their lower leg are fused into one in the case of a frog. Frogs also have similarly structured toes and fingers as humans.

Shoulder blades and clavicle: similar to a human, a frog also has two collar bones and two shoulder blades or otherwise called scapulae.

Ribs: humans have ribs and a diaphragm that protects their lungs and heart, while frogs don't have either.

The frog skeleton is made up of how many regions?

The skeleton of a frog comprises two regions, the axial region and the appendicular region. The bones on their entire body, including their skull, spinal column, limbs, and every other bone, are divided into these two regions.

The first region of a frog, the axial region, consists of four bones - the skull or the cranium, the vertebral column, the sternum, and finally, the visceral skeleton, which consists of the hyoid cartilage and the jaws. The skull is then divided into four parts- the nasal part consists of the triangular paired nasal bones.

The frontoparietal part is the flat bony part that covers the dorsal surface of the skull.

The exoccipital part consists of the two bones at the posterior end of the skull, which borders the foramen magnum. Lastly, the sphenethmoid part consists of the unpaired bones at the anterior side of the frontoparietal part.

Their vertebral column is made up of 10 vertebrae.

They don't have a neck; instead, their first vertebra, the atlas, is the only cervical vertebra and the following seven are abdominal vertebrae. The names of the following two vertebrae are the sacral vertebra and ileum, while the last vertebra is called urostyle, a single vertebra made up of fused vertebrae.

The second region of a frog, the appendicular or stomach region, consists of three bone parts - the pectoral girdle or the shoulder bones, the pelvic girdle or the hip bones, big and small bones of the legs. The frog moves the pelvis up and down its spinal cord to be able to jump.

Finally, the skeletons of the front legs consist of the humerus and the fused radioulnar, and the back legs consist of the femur and the fused tibiofibular.

Next, they have two astragali and two calcaneus or heel bones joined to their toes. On their fingers and toes, they have carpals, metacarpals, tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for frog skeleton: must-know facts on frog's body revealed for kids!

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