CLASSIFICATION 651 



Sub-Order II. Phaneroglossa. 



These are the frogs and toads with tongues. There are seven 

 families. 



The best known of these families are the Bufonidae which are the 

 common toads and the Ranidae, the "true frogs." 



There is a peculiar species of toads in France and Switzerland called 

 Alytes obstetricans (Fig. 376), in which the male takes the eggs when 

 laid and wraps them around his hind legs, after which he deposits them 

 in a hole in the ground. These eggs are then moistened by him with 

 dew and taken out once-in-a-while in the water. When the eggs are 

 ready for hatching, he takes them all to the water and remains with 

 them until hatching is complete. 



Class Reptilia. 



There are four orders of living reptiles. These are cold-blooded 

 vertebrates, breathing by means of lungs throughout their life cycle. 

 Lizards, snakes, crocodilians, and turtles come under the heading of 

 Reptilia. 



The fossil records of the past show that the four living orders are 

 but a small portion of the variations within this class which have con- 

 tinued their existence. 



In the Mesozoic era (Fig. 245), commonly called the "age of Rep- 

 tiles," there have been found many skeleton-remains of immensely large 

 lizard-like animals. In fact, the name given to the largest of these 

 animals of the past is Dinosaur which means "terrible Lizard." 



Sphenodon punctatum 

 Fig. 377. Reptilia. 



(Sphenodon is considered the most primitive 

 type of living reptiles.) (After Gadow.) 



There were many flying reptiles at that time while Plesiosaurs 

 lived in the water and had long paddles for swimming instead of legs. 



Reptiles with wings are called pterosaurs. Some of their fossil 

 remains show these animals to have been twenty feet from tip to tip of 

 wings w r hen spread. It is assumed that these animals so overspecialized 

 various parts of their body that when great climatic and earth-changes 

 came about, they could not cope with the new conditions. It has also 

 been suggested that the eggs of many of these great animals may have 

 been used for food by very small mammals which caused the largest of 

 all beasts to die out entirely. 



