Amphibians are the most primitive class of land-living vertebrates. The young develop underwater and breathe through gills before metamorphosing into adults that breathe through their skins or lungs.
Although the adults leave the water for much of the year, they tend to stay in damp places, because they must keep their skins moist and will die very quickly if they become dehydrated. In Europe there are 43 species of amphibians belonging to two orders. The Anura order covers frogs and toads. The Urodela covers newts and salamanders.
Newts spawn over a long period and have a complex courtship. Females deposit eggs one at a time on submerged vegetation and they fold the leaves behind them. Newts are seldom seen on land in daylight and generally remain within 200-500 metres of their breeding pond. Newts will find sites in which to spend the winter in a dormant state, they prefer sheltered, damp and cool, frost-free over-wintering sites; these might include rock piles, old walls, underground crevices, tree stumps or piles of dead wood. As juveniles they may be found away from the water in log piles, under stones and in areas of rough vegetation where they feed and hibernate over the winter.
Most reptiles, which are covered in scales, have adapted to a terrestrial life and have a different reproductive cycle from amphibians. The eggs are fertilised internally and the young are miniatures of the adults. In most species the young hatch from eggs, but a few species, such as the common or viviparous lizard, and adders give birth to live young. Individuals of the same species can behave differently depending upon which part of the UK they inhabit. For example adders that live in the warmer southern half of the UK sometimes lay eggs, however adders that inhabit the northern part of the UK give birth to live young as the climate is too cold for eggs to develop. It is not uncommon for adders to give birth to a mixture of live young and eggs.
Lizards, which possess four legs, and snakes, which are legless, belong to the same order. Neither lizards nor snakes can maintain their body temperature internally, in the way that birds and mammals do. They have to maintain a more or less constant temperature by sunbathing and then moving into cover. They hibernate during the winter.
Amphibians
Common frog Common toad Palmate newt Smooth newt
Reptiles
Adder Grass snake Common lizard Slow worm
Web links and other information
UK Chytridiomycosis Survey - Frog Swab
In 2008 Natural England, the Institute of Zoology (IoZ) and The HCT are jointly working on a chytrid screening project. In brief:
• Chytrid is a fungus known to have infected and caused declines in some amphibian species in different parts of the world.
• Chytrid has been found in both native and non-native amphibians at a small number of sites the UK.
• We do not know whether chytrid is widespread in the UK. We do not whether, or how, it will affect our amphibians.
The UK Chytridiomycosis Survey aims to find out how widespread the fungus is.
Find out more about chytrid and chytridiomycosis from:
Alien Encounters www.alienencounters.org.uk
Amphibian Ark www.amphibianark.org/chytrid.htm
The Institute of Zoology www.zsl.org/ukchytrid
Froglife www.froglife.org/ToadsOnRoads/ToR.htm
Herpetological Conservation Trust www.herpconstrust.org.uk www.adder.org.uk
National Amphibian and Reptile Recording System www.narrs.org.uk
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