So you may hear them at night or see them while your fishing or while taking a casual walk. At night some of them can be found hunting for some bugs to munch on. They can be big they can small and have two stages of life. They have that moist, slimy skin. Thats right i said moist. MOIST. I know a lot of people who hate that word, but unlike the word "moist" dont hate these guys because they keep a lot of our bug population from being. well... over populated. If you are clueless and havent guessed what Im talking about then you should feel ashamed! Obviously we are going to be talking about amphibians! Actually no one is talking. I am writing and you are reading.
The ratio of amphibians to reptiles is about 3/4 which is pretty close actually. These two classes do make up the herpetology department that so many people know and love! However close these two classes may appear, they consist of some diverse and pretty amazing creatures, and they have quite different life styles and characteristics. Since so far I have been talking about reptiles, I guess the only way I could be a proper "herp" is to have a few articles, which will consist of today and tomorrow then later in the week I will discuss defensive traits that is mixed up and connected to the two classes.
Amphibians as I said before usually have two main stages in their life. In fact the word "amphibian" comes from the Greek language meaning "two lifed". Metamorphosis is the reason for the separate stages, and I will get detailed in exactly how that happens in my next article, so I digress. The first stage usually takes place in the water. This is the eggs hatching. The eggs of most amphibians are jelly like little bulbs. Some amphibians, such as most frogs, will lay their eggs in a jelly cluster or in strands among the edge of the water in algae or other plant life. When the eggs hatch the young amphibians will have gills and some type of aid in swimming. Tadpoles for example have a strong tail they wiggle to propel themselves forward. As you can see in the diagram below the tadpole eventually adapts to land where it then becomes a frog over a period of time and then will mature and lay eggs of its own. There are two man parts of a frogs life that is the tadpole phase (larval phase) and the frog phase (adult phase). Many species of frogs and toads grow in this way, although toads we know have lives that are more independent from water then frogs, and their skin structure is different then that of a frog.

Alright so lets move on from toads to salamanders, which get even better. Now I really want you to get this whole metamorphosis and amphibian "double life" idea in your head because that is a major factor in amphibians life and is something I found very amazing about them. As I said before I plan on talking about how the metamorphosis of an amphibian exactly works and why in my next article. So your salamanders are similar to the stages of a frog they have the larval and adult stages, however the salamanders external gills are easily seen. Newts are very similar to salamanders. Newts spend more of their time on dry land then most salamanders do and their bodies are shaped a bit sturdier then that of a salamander (not so much sluggish). So think about it this way, a salamander is to a newt, AS a frog is to a toad.

http://www.animalspot.net/salamander

So your Poison Dart frogs (which are wicked crazy and I will discus them later this week much more) are like this along with your African bull frogs (big looking dudes) and your Green and Gray tree frogs and your Cane toads and your Pacman frogs and your Fowlers toad and your American toad. You get the point yet? If its a toad or a frog its life cycle looks something like this.

• Image ID:317950838      
• Copyright: Kazakova Maryia
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Amphibians like reptiles are cold blooded and when the weather gets cold many of them will hibernate in borrows or underwater. Some frogs, who aren't the best burrowers will actually find a safe crack or crevice and actually let their bodies freeze. They bodies do have a type of chemical reaction however that serves as an anti-freeze so the toad will just thaw out when Spring comes around, for example wood frogs in Alaska would do this.

So frogs hibernate in some pretty amazing ways but before i end this article I wanna talk about a cool salamander. I mean i personally like salamanders much more then frogs, but that's beside the point. So moving to warmer climates such as Japan we see the monsters of all salamanders, the famous Japanese Giant salamander.

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/27/rare-giant-salamanders-bred-in-captivity/

So yeah the two lifed is pretty cool if I may say so myself. Visit my blog the rest of the week and see my other post about amphibians! Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask questions or subscribe! Thanks again!

For some extra info or to see where I received some of my information check out these links. Much of my information came from experience and schooling. 

Links: 

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-frozen-frogs-20140723-story.html

http://www.californiaherps.com/allfrogs.html

http://animals.mom.me/sequence-frogs-growth-3558.html