Mexican burrowing toad

Nose toad, juvenile, shortly after metamorphosis

The nose toad ( Rhinophrynus dorsalis), also known as nose frog or toad Mexican grave, is a Froschlurch which occurs in the coastal lowlands of Mexico and parts of Central America. In Mexico, the species is protected.

Features

Nose toads are six inches long. Your body is ovate, the tip is the small head. Her skin is smooth and thin on the top, perfused rough and strong on the sides and belly. The back is brown and is often divided by a yellow or orange center bar. Yellow or orange spots can also be found on the flanks. The legs are short and strong, the blade- like rear legs wearing wide webbed and are powerful, horn -covered heel grave instruments. The first toe of the hind legs is a strong cusps and has only one phalanx. Nose toads are toothless. The eardrum is hidden, ear glands absent, as is the sternum. Her tongue is forward not as rooted in other anurans, but free and can be stretched out by a groove at the mouth end.

Distribution area

Your exact distribution area includes the Caribbean coast of Mexico, including the entire Yucatan peninsula to the north-western Honduras. On the Pacific side, they occur to Costa Rica from the Río Balsas in Mexico. Also at the south-western coast of Texas, there are small populations. The species occurs from sea level up in front of a height of 500 meters.

Way of life

Nose toads inhabit the soil of tropical and subtropical dry and moist forests, thorn forests, savannas and cultivated land with loose soil, especially areas with pronounced rainy seasons, which lead to temporary flooding of parts of the territories. They live almost constantly buried in the ground and appear highest after heavy rains during the mating season at the surface. Above all, periods of drought and the winter they spend underground. Their diet consists of insects, termites are preferred, which are lapped up with his tongue. Feels nose toad threatened them inflates with air and then resembles a small, spitzmäuligen balloon.

Reproduction

Nose toads reproduce several times a year after heavy rains. Before mating, the males call out from their hiding place on land. The call sounds like a hoarse wh -o -o -o -a. Mating and egg laying take place in temporary small bodies of water that form after the rains. Sometimes the salamanders do find longer walks to a suitable waters. During mating, the male includes the female to the lumbar region. The eggs are deposited in jelly-like tubes and float on the water surface. The hatching after a few days tadpoles have barbels and paired respiratory openings. Since they feed as filter feeders, they have no keratinized mouth. They live sociable, reach a length of four inches and make one to three months after the metamorphosis into the adult animal by.

System

The species is the only one of Rhinophrynidae family. Fossils of the same and other genera of the family are known from the Paleocene and Eocene of Wyoming and the Oligocene of Saskatchewan. As the tadpoles look very similar, it is believed that the family in a sister group relationship to the tongueless ( Pipidae ) is.