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Name : self-contradictory toad ( Pseudis paradoxa ) , also lie with as shrink toad
Where it lives : Northern South America and Trinidad
The paradoxical frog (Pseudis paradoxa) is smaller as an adult than it is when in the tadpole stage.
What it eats : invertebrate , primarily insects
Why it ’s awesome : This rather odd species is unusual because it nonplus smaller as it grows up — it is notably larger in the larval level than in the grownup stage . The self-contradictory batrachian ’s substantial tadpole is three to four time big than an grownup and measures up to 9 column inch ( 22 centimeters ) . In comparison , an grownup amount up to 3 inches ( 8 cm ) long .
Other mintage in thePseudisgenus also parade this unusual change in size , but theparadoxical frog holds the record for the retentive polliwog .
Illustration of a paradoxical frog in the tadpole stage drawn by Richard Polydore Nodder in the 1700s.
So how do these polliwog get so big?A study published in 2009 in The Herpetological Journalfound that the growing rate of the tadpoles is similar to other species , but the paradoxical tadpoles just keep on grow and developing .
By the time the tadpoles undergo transfiguration into adults , the males have already commence to produce spermatozoan and are " essentially mature , " and the female person have ball in development — which normally happens in the adolescent salientian stage of the lifespan rhythm .
Another paper , which look at a differentPseudisspecies , studied the haggard evolution of that metal money ' tadpoles and find that it was well - advanced or thoroughgoing by the closing of transfiguration .
Much of the tadpole ’s over-the-top size of it comes from its foresighted and deep tail . Prior to metamorphosing into an adult , its snout - vent length ( i.e. its body length ) is comparable to the mature adult .
In most other salientian , a post - metamorphosis frog start small and then maturate larger . However , because this tadpole grow for longsighted than other mintage , and is well - developed when it undergo metamorphosis , the grownup exhibits piffling to no growing . The loss of the tail that causes the frog to " shrink . "
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