Arms and legs are thin. Hands are flat and palmate and are covered withtubercles. Fingers have expanded tips. Axillary membranes are lacking. When the leg is pressed against the body, the ankle reaches slightly above the shoulder. Skin is soft, sometimes wrinkled, and tuberculate, with tubercules on the dorsal and lateral sides of the body being larger and more dense than those on the ventral side. LOG IN.
Log into your account. Recover your password. Fact Fiend. Animals Bizarre Science. The pebble toad of Venezuela does something altogether different: it curls up like a ball and throws itself down the side of a mountain. This extraordinary tumbling behaviour has been filmed in slow motion by a BBC crew for the natural history programme Life.
It lives on the top of a type of mountain known as a tepui, which occur across the Guiana Highlands in South America. These table-topped mountains rise out of the rainforest, isolating the animals and plants that live upon them. While there are no snakes living on the tepui, this lack of athletic prowess makes the toads vulnerable to marauding tarantulas, an ambush predator.
A threatened toad folds its arms and legs under its body, tucks in its head and tenses its muscles, assuming a "ball position". Because the amphibian is mostly likely resting on an incline, it then rolls downhill like a dislodged pebble. The toads travel far enough to escape the attentions of the tarantulas and often tumble into a crack or crevice where they are out of sight or difficult to reach.
0コメント