The speaker, despite acknowledging the low audience interest in frogs, is passionately considering creating a feature-length documentary about them and other amphibians, driven by a deep personal fascination and a desire to share incredible discoveries, particularly highlighting the complex and often surprising evolutionary relationships within frog and toad families.
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Well, hi there.
Nobody likes frogs. Frog content is the
most consistently underwatched content
that we make on this channel, but I
love frogs. They're amazing. In 2022,
when the war in Ukraine began and the
future of humanity seemed in the
balance, I was in the middle of the
Amazon rainforest, having just
documented dozens of species of frogs,
many unlike anything I had ever seen
before. And as much as I was concerned
about my family and the future of
humanity and civilization, I also
couldn't fight the nagging feeling of
dread that the world might end without
us getting to share all of the
incredible frogs that we had found with
you. And while the world has continued
long enough for us to return to the
United States and share all of the
amazing frogs that we found with you and
the world, the fact that nobody likes frogs
frogs
remains a fact. Nobody likes frogs,
but I do. So, I'm foolishly considering
making a featurelength documentary about
frogs and the other extent amphibians to
release later this year. A documentary
on par with the documentaries that we
have released over the last two years on
all of the lipidosis reptiles and all of
the mammals. But to be perfectly honest
with you, I think it's a stupid idea
because as much as I like frogs,
I feel like I'm the only one who does.
Now, I should mention that I love toads.
I adore them. And as much as we saw some
insane non-toads in the Amazon, some of
the craziest frogs I've ever seen in my
life, two of my absolute favorite frogs
that we saw the entire time were this
giant cane toad, which is a pretty
normal toad, just ginormous, and this
absolutely unreal toad. I had no idea
that there were toads like this in
existence. It's insane. I love it so
much. We found it on the same night as
this legendary frog. And while this frog
got the most attention by far, this toad
stole the show for me. I mean, just look
at this thing. Have you ever seen a toad
like it? By the time we found this toad,
I had already seen a large number of
crusted forest toads. They were cool,
but nothing to write home about. But
this, I mean, its coloring is absolutely
glorious. I love the contrast and the
pattern, but that isn't why I love it so
much. This toad structure is unlike
anything I had ever seen on a toad or
knew to exist. I mean, I have a degree
in zoology, a PhD in biology, bless a
masters, but I had no idea that there
were any toads with hard bony spikes
down their backs or huge dilophosaurus
crests, which were also hard and bony,
as were the giant wartthog spikes at the
corners of its mouth. And then it had
rows of soft spikes, like those of a
bearded dragon going down each side.
Anyway, it was probably my favorite frog
that we found the entire time in the
Amazon, which is saying a lot because
check out some of the others. And yes, I
have been calling toads frogs this whole
time. Because there is something else
that my education never taught me. It's
that toads
are frogs. In fact, a good argument can
be made that they're tree frogs, which
is hilarious and rad. But you don't have
to take my word for it.
I'll show you. To make the case that
toads are tree frogs, I actually want to
start with this amazing frog, the
casketed tree frog, which while not my
favorite frog of the trip, was pretty
much everyone else's favorite frog. And
it's not hard to see why. It's an
unbelievably cool frog. Unless you
yourself are a frog. These guys are frog
eating specialists. If there's one thing
on this planet that loves frogs more
than I do, it's these guys. They eat
frogs. They carry frogs on their backs.
They're just legendary. This long-nosed
casaded tree frog was one of two species
of cascaded tree frogs that we found on
that trip. And this ginormous ground
dwelling cascaded tree frog was the
other, the king cobras of frogs. And
both of these spectacular frogs are
members of the family hemifract. These
are of all of the frogs that we're going
to discuss today, the family most
distantly related to all the rest, but
totally rad. While most of the gener in
this family look more like traditional
tree frogs than do cascaded tree frogs,
they are all pretty unusual. more in the
way that they reproduce than the way
that they look. Because other than the
cascaded tree frogs of the genus
hemifractus, the other members of the
hemifact today look pretty much like
normal tree frogs. In fact, for a long
time, the whole family was thought to be
a subf family of the most tree frog
family of all tree frog families, the
family hil that we will discuss shortly.
because morphologically they are so
similar. It wasn't until we started
using molecular techniques that we
discovered that of all of the families
that we're going to discuss in this cate
these are the most distantly related of
all to hil. So if these are tree frogs
and hilids are tree frogs then from a
phlogenetic standpoint everything that
we're going to discuss in this cate are
tree frogs even if they no longer live
in trees. Hemifrids are native to South
and Central America. It includes six
genre and some phoggeneticists consider
it to be not one but two or even three
separate families because
families aren't a real phenomenon.
Clades are real and families are just
names that we give to clades that are
distinct beyond some arbitrary and
difficult to define threshold. And your
threshold might be different from mine.
So we might disagree about which group
should be a family versus a subf family.
And maybe neither of us are right. But
given that this lineage has been
diversifying independently for just as
long as all of the frogs that we're
going to discuss from this point on in
this cate, it shouldn't be too shocking
that the divergences might be fairly
profound. But despite considerable
genetic and sometimes morphological
differences between genera, they are
united by some very unique reproductive
behavior. These guys produce very few
eggs for a frog with very large yolks.
These very large yolks are important as
they spend no or almost no time as tadpoles.
tadpoles.
Most have what is called direct
development where they develop directly
into froglets. And the females carry the
eggs on their backs either stuck to
their backs or in little pouches until
they're ready to hatch. Similar in this
way to some of their extremely distant
relatives in the family pipid. Sorry I
didn't give you trypophobes any heads up
on that, but uh given the subject
matter, you should have seen it coming.
And studies show that trigger warnings
just make it worse. And just so you
know, my wife Lysa had trypophobia. Bad.
Maybe the worst case I've seen. But one
day she decided to overcome it. And she
did it the way that we know works the
best to overcome irrational fears
through exposure. The same way that
people overcome their fear of snakes
almost every time that we open the
reptile room. And once you confront one
irrational fear, it doesn't just change
your relationship to that one fear, but
to all of your fears. It doesn't make
you less afraid, but more able to
confront what you fear. It makes you
braver across the board. So do it. Face
the peipa and the lotus seed pods. And
if you're afraid of snakes, come hold
one. But now, let's talk about the
family hila. While everything that we're
yet to discuss in this cate are more
closely related to hyids than hilids are
to hemifacts,
all of these frogs are closely related.
And hilids are among the closest living
relatives of hemifacts. It just turns
out that there is a stronger case for
Pac-Man frogs being hyids than hemifids
being hyids. Though I don't know of
anybody making that case. To my
knowledge, the main dispute at this
point in time is about whether frogs
like this legendary giant monkey tree
frog that we found in the Amazon or this
wonderful whites tree frog are part of
this family or are representatives of
two families that are currently nested
within the highay. But for now, these
guys both seem to be part of this epic
tree frog family. So it includes the
Australian tree frogs and leaf frogs,
but not just Australian tree frogs and
leaf frogs, but more than 50 total genre
on every continent except Antarctica,
with most having a traditional tree frog
look, including sticky toe pads and
elliptical pupils oriented horizontally,
generally not vertically. That said, you
see these same features in many other
groups like the hemifactids and even
more distantly related groups like
racoorid. So they aren't the only frogs
with these attributes. And not all of
them live in trees or have sticky pads
like the swimming frogs of South
America. And leaf frogs, including
things like redeyed tree frogs and
monkey tree frogs, have vertical pupils
like a cat. So they're not the only ones
with these features, and they don't all
have them. But for the most part, if you
find a topad tree frog in the Americas,
Australia, Europe, or Central Asia, it's
probably a hilar.
Of course, it gets really tricky in
Eastern Asia where the rakaphorids are
also found. In Central and South
America, if it carries its eggs on its
back, especially if they develop
directly into froglets, then it's
probably not a hil. So, that's one way
to tell, but we will see later. There
are others you might confuse for hilids.
So, those are the hilids. and they are
possibly the only true tree frogs on the
planet. However, if the tree frogs
include more than one family, especially
if the hemifids are also going to be
tree frogs, then the closest relatives
to the hilids would have to be tree
frogs, too. You can include the
hemifacts or exclude them. But if the
hilids and any other frogs on the planet
are going to be considered tree frogs
from a phlogenetic standpoint, then it
would have to include the closest
relatives of the hilids also. So what
are they? Well, it turns out that the
closest relatives of the hilids are
assuming that leaf frogs and the
Australian tree frogs are hils and not
separate families. the 14 families in
the clay leptodactylopiformies.
A caid that itself contains two major
clades, one with three families and the
other with 11. All 14 being the closest
relatives to the hilids. All equally
related to the hilids as these families
had not yet diverged from one another at
the time that their shared ancestors
diverged from the shared ancestors of
the hils. an event which happened since
the ancestors that they shared with the
hilage diverged from the ancestors of
the hemifacts. And I'm going to start
with the small cate because it is going
to get interesting really fast. The two
families that are most closely related
to one another being the families aromo
badday the cryptic poison frogs and
dendrobat the poison dart frogs. And the
odd man out, a little family called buffonade,
buffonade,
the toads. So the two families of poison
frogs are more closely related to toads
than they are to anything else, which is
crazy. And toads are among the closest
relatives of tree frogs. Closer even
than are the hemifacts. So toads are
definitely frogs
and arguably tree frogs. really just
depending on whether we think tree frogs
are exclusively hilids or if anything
else should be included too. But let's
talk about this clay because I think we
can agree that it is at least as
legendary as it is toxic. And it's
probably the most toxic trio of frog
families alive today. I think there's a
good reason that for much of my life I
thought of frogs as one thing and toads
as another. Frogs are obviously a very
diverse group, even without including
toads, but so are toads. There are more
than 50 genre found on every continent
except for Antarctica and until
recently, Australia. We could make a
featurelength movie just about toad
genre. And while toads are unique among
frogs, there's really nothing about them
that would make you think that they
aren't themselves frogs. They have all
of the normal frog features just like
humans have all of the normal primate
features or whales have all of the
normal mammal features. Well, except for
legs. In fact, it takes a pretty trained
eye to spot the difference between a
toad and really any other lumpy frog.
And not all of them are even all that
lumpy. So, what does set toads apart?
Well, for one thing, all toads are
toothless, which probably explains why
they have to pee on you when you grab
one. How else are they going to defend
themselves? Oh, that's right. Poison.
The easiest feature to spot on toads,
even smooth toads that you won't see on
most non-toads, even lumpy non-toads, is
a pair of poison excreting paratid
glands behind the eyes. However, some
other amphibians, including other frogs,
do have them also. And others that lack
them do have similar looking glands that
are not technically paratid glands. But
toads will be toothless, something that
isn't unique to toads either. About 20
different frog lineages are toothless.
But again, they will also have paratid
glands. And they will generally lay eggs
in paired strings instead of egg masses,
more typical of frogs. And they'll pee
on you. They always pee on you. It's in
their contracts. Their closest
relatives, as you know, are the two
families of poison frogs. Not that
shocking when you see toads like
harlequin toads, like these that we
found in the Amazon. But it is something
that I think most people don't know and
wouldn't have guessed. Not that most
people even know that there are two
families of poison frogs. And no, the
second family isn't the Mantelade. Those
are extremely different relatives, but
still probably owe their existence to
certain millipedes. I didn't know that
poison frogs were closely related to
toads or that there were two families of
poison frogs until very recently, but
I'm pretty stoked about this
information. I have long been aware of
the family Dendrobat, the poisoned dart
frogs. 16 gener, often spectacularly
colorful, extremely bold, often highly
toxic frogs from South and Central
America. I would love to do a video on
just these rad little frogs in the near
future. They're amazing. It was the
family arroad day, the five genera of
cryptic poison frogs that were new to
me. And in fairness to my education, I
took herptology before these two
families were separated. And some
phoggeneticists to this day don't think
they deserve to be regarded as a full
family, but simply as a dendrobat subf
family. So it isn't too shocking that I
didn't hear about this family. They look
very much like dendrobats. They're about
the same size as dendrobats, various
degrees of small, and they live in the
same places. So telling them apart can
be very tricky. I can tell you that if
it is extremely colorful or if it has
all black eyes, it's almost certainly a
gender ballad. But if it's more cryptic
and has clearly visible irises, that
doesn't mean that it isn't a denderbat.
The bold coloration generally indicates
a highly toxic frog. The bright
coloration is called aposmatic
coloration and is a warning to wouldbe
predators that eating the frog would
likely be catastrophic. Cryptic poison
frogs, as well as more cryptically
colored poison dart frogs, tend to be
much less toxic and thus rely more on
camouflage than chemical defense, though
some can apparently produce a skunk-like
defensive odor. So, I can tell you that
bright frogs are likely to be
dendrobats, and you shouldn't lick them.
I don't have a great way of teaching you
to differentiate cryptic poison frogs
from cryptically colored poison dart
frogs, but if you have to lick a poison
frog, pick one that looks like it could
be a cryptic poison frog, even if it's a
bit stinky. Dendrobats are more likely
to be seen carrying tadpoles on their
backs or or raising them in small pools
such as in bromeilads, feeding them with
unfertilized eggs. So, if you see this,
don't lick it. But not all dendrobatids
do this. Some reproduce more like aroma
bats and and most other frogs in larger
bodies of water. So don't lick them just
because you found them breeding in a
stream or pond. There are other
differences, but they're extremely
subtle. It would probably be easier to
identify the species and then find out
which family that species is in than to
identify the family just by looking at
the frog. Unless it has high contrast,
bright colors, black eyes, or babies on
its back. or if you lick it and become
violently ill or die. Your last words
could be dendro badday. I want to say
thank you to our patrons at Patreon who
allow us the freedom to make videos that
we think are important but maybe won't
be rewarded by YouTube. If you like this
kind of content, if you love frogs as
much as I do, please consider supporting
us on Patreon and definitely check out
the host of cool features we have for
our patrons cuz we do try to provide a
lot to say thank you and to kind of pay
you guys back a little for all that you
do for us. The closest relatives to the
two families of poison frogs after toads
which are arguably a third family of
poison frogs giant often lumpy poison
frogs are the remaining 11 families in
the leptoductilmies.
A cate composed of two major clates one
with three families and the other with
eight. So these are in addition to the
two families of poison frogs, all of the
other frogs more closely related to
toads than they are to highlights.
Meaning that if any of them are tree
frogs, even if hemifracted or not, then
toads are not only frogs, but
specifically tree frogs. So let's find
out what's in this cate because it's a
cool one. Full of many frogs that you've
probably never seen before. with one of
the two clades being full of things that
look like they should be close relatives
of toads and the other
being full of things that most people
would probably consider tree frogs, some
of which are see-through. And I'm really
excited to talk about these crazy tree
frog like toad cousins. But I'm going to
start with the larger clay because it
has a bunch of amazing frogs you
probably didn't know existed. And one of
the strangest frog families there is,
but one you probably did know about.
This family, the family serade, the
three genera of South American horned
frogs, which don't always have horns,
but always look ridiculous with giant
heads and big mouths. They're the deep
sea angler fish of tetropods. frogs like
Pac-Man frogs and the somehow even more
absurd looking budgets frogs. If you
find a frog in South America that looks
like a disc, that's about one-third frog
head with tiny frog legs, that is almost
certainly what you have. Absurd. Their
closest relatives are the remaining
seven families in the cate, which are
all more closely related to one another
than they are to the South American
sometimes horn frogs. And of those other
seven, the one most distantly related to
the other six is probably the easiest of
all frogs that aren't toads to confuse
with a toad.
>> odanto frenade. Unless you have spent
significant time in southern and eastern
South America, you've probably never
seen one of these frogs before. forming
three genera. Most of them look like
toads, but a few of them look like the
Texas Longhorn equivalent of South
American horn frogs. I mean, just look
at those horns, but most look like
toads. They're all bumpy. They tend to
lack the specific parotted glands seen
in toads right behind the eyes. So, in
most cases, that will tell you. But if
you're in South or eastern South America
and you find a bumpy frog with glands
behind its eyes, you might want to check
and see if it has teeth or if it lays
eggs in a chain. Though whether or not
it pees on you might work in a pinch.
The remaining six families fall into two
clades, each with three families, but
one contains the Lake Tittikaka frog.
And given that I too used to live in the
middle of Lake Tittikaka, I'm going to
start with them. especially considering
that I only recently discovered that
there is a second species of large
aquatic frogs related to them that also
lives in the Andes. We covered them on
our most recent 10 animals I didn't know
existed video. Well, it turns out that I
could have made at least six whole
videos for that series just featuring
frogs from this one family, Telma
Tobiad. It only has one genus, but over
60 known species. All found in the
highlands of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia,
Argentina, and Chile. Though not all are
as fully aquatic as the two species I
knew about before I started digging into
the close relatives of toads. And the
two that I knew were by far the largest
species in the family. In general, they
tend to be similar in shape to other
highly aquatic frogs, but with a very
round snout and silly eyes that hearken
to their relatives, the budgets frogs.
And some of the most aquatic members of
the group tend to have sharpi skin folds
to maximize surface area for cutaneous
respiration. Their two closest relatives
appear to be the four genera in the family
family
and the two remarkable genre in the
family rhinodermatay. I'll start with
the rhinodermatay because they are so
crazy though much less remarkable if
you're a cichlid. In fairness there is
some debate about the placement of this
family. It may not be a close relative
to toads or even tree frogs. And there
are only three species and two general.
Some don't look that remarkable. Just a
dark colored frog with like a starscape
of yellow coloration, a rounded nose,
and big brown eyes that are a bit
farther forward than is typical of
frogs. But the other genus has a very
distinctive look with the pointy nose of
a purple frog on a more proportionately
sized green body, but an even stranger
reproductive biology. Let's put it this
way. If you find a pointy-nosed South
American frog with a mouthful of his own
babies, you'll know what you have.
Assuming that these crazy frogs are
actually part of the tree frog and
toadclade, their closest relatives
appear to be the four genera in the
family betrakilade
of southern South America, which are
pretty but relatively unremarkable
looking frogs. With only a dozen
species, you're unlikely to ever see
one. But this is another one where you
will probably have an easier time
identifying the exact species you have
than something specific about the family
as a whole. But if you find yourself in
the southernmost part of South America
and you find a pretty generic looking
frog, there is a decent chance that this
is what you have. The final three
families in this cate are all more
closely related to one another than they
are to anything else. And they're also
pretty generic looking frogs for the
most part. All three of these families
are found in Brazil, though at least one
gets a bit into Argentina and Chile as
well. No respect for borders. The one
most distantly related to the other two
being the three genera in the family
cycllo rampid, which are kind of lumpy
looking little ground frogs from
southern Brazil. The other two being the
three genera in the family also, which
is found in Argentina, Chile, and
southern Brazil. and the four genera in
the family hyote of Brazil and
Argentina. Some of them don't vocalize
making them rather unique in at least
that one way. So those are the more
toadlooking of the families more closely
related to toads than highlands. But the
three families in this cate more closely
related to well this cate than to toads
really give credence to the idea that
toads might be tree frogs because
they're pretty clearly tree frogs or at
least they look and live like tree frogs
even if they're transparent. That said,
it's almost certainly convergence upon
the tree frog form. The out group of the
three families are not very tree frog
like at all. That would be the 13 genera
in the family leptoductil, the skinny
toad frogs of Mexico through South
America. If you haven't noticed, this
whole cate appears to be a South
American cate with a few groups making
their way out of South America now that
South America is connected to North
America. These guys are a pretty diverse
family in terms of basic morphology, but
they do seem to generally have skinny
toes and many of them produce bubble
nests where the eggs hatch and often
where the tadpoles remain without
feeding until they metamorphos into
froglets and they don't look like tree
frogs. Their closest relatives on the
other hand totally look like tree frogs.
Those are the families aloprenaday the
single genus of tukit hill frogs and
centro lineday the 13 genera of glass
frogs and I'm going to start with the
glass frogs because they are shockingly
diverse and give us some context for how
to identify their closest relatives.
These guys are found in central and
south america in heavily forested
locations when they're awake. When
viewed from above, they appear largely
green, though their bellies are pretty
darn transparent. You can get a pretty
good look at their internal anatomy from
below. And while they sleep, most of
their blood concentrates in their
livers, increasing further the degree to
which they are transparent. So, getting
a good look at their internal organs
without harming the frog in any way is a
good way to identify these frogs. But it
isn't the only thing that distinguishes
them. They also have very distinctive
faces, very round with very forward-
facing eyes with distinctive pupils and
toe pads. The bones in the tips of the
toes are even T-shaped, and this is
somewhat reflected in the shape of the
pads themselves. Because of their
transparent bellies, it is possible to
see if a female is full of eggs, as was
the one that we found in the Peruvian
Amazon. And when they lay those eggs,
they lay them on the bottom of leaves,
so the eggs can hide in much the same
way that the frogs do. Now take
everything that you know about glass
frogs and make them not as transparent
and not green. Have them lay tons of
eggs in the water instead of relatively
few on a leaf. Put them in northeastern
South America and boom toit hill frogs
the closest relatives of the glass
frogs. Though before molecular
phoggenetic analysis was done on this
group, they were considered to be toads
for a while, which probably reflects how
many morphological similarities are
conserved across this cate. Like glass
frogs, they look a lot like tree frogs,
but the T-shaped terminal flanges, the
last bone on the toe, and the shape of
the toe pads set them apart from the
highlight tree frogs. So the question
is, from a phlogenetic standpoint,
what are we going to consider a tree
frog? I'm assuming that the highlands
are tree frogs. If the hemifracted are
also tree frogs, then everything we've
discussed today would have to be a tree
frog. I would have no problem with that.
But they don't have to be. If they're
not, but the glass frogs and the
toucatill frogs are tree frogs, then
everything but the hemifacts would have
to be tree frogs. I guess what I'm
saying is that we only have two options
when it comes to toads. If tree frogs
are going to be a cate, either the
hilids are the only tree frogs or toads
are tree frogs, too. What do you think?
And should we make a film about all of
the amphibians this year or should we do
another group like sharks, spiders, or
something else? I'd love to know what
you think. As always, like and
subscribe, and we hope to see you real
soon. Oh, are you going to jump on my
face? Sorry I woke you. Please don't
jump on my face.
But you don't like facing the lights.
Nobody likes I've kind of wondered how
much the raccoon didn't like the lights.
>> I feel like that was part of the equation.
equation.
>> So if there was a species of bird that
loved livers. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> This would not be a good camouflage.
>> Unless I mean I I guess not. You know,
it's going by other frogs. It's like who
knows if they got a liver.
>> Wait a second.
I know for a fact they have a liver.
>> I don't have a liver. I can see your
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