Amphibians vs. Reptiles

Just like humans begin as babies and grow throughout their lives, animals do too. Let’s take a closer look at how frogs and turtles grow and change during their lives. Click on each tab to see the life cycles of a frog and a turtle.

A frog’s life cycle has four stages.

Frog’s life cycle; eggs, tadpole, froglet, and adult frog.

Read through the description of each stage.

	The mother frog lays thousands of soft eggs in a pond.
	When it is the right time, tadpoles wiggle out of the eggs. Tadpoles breathe through gills and have to stay in the water all the time.
	Next, the tadpole’s head grows larger, its tail grows longer, and its legs begin to grow. The tadpole becomes a froglet.
	The froglet’s tail grows into the body, and its legs and body get bigger. The gills get covered, and its lungs develop. Now the froglet has become an adult frog. It can swim in the water and hop around on land.

Some frogs become adults in just a few months. Other frogs, like the bullfrog, take about 2 years to become a full-grown adult.

A turtle also has four stages in the life cycle.

Turtle's life cycle; eggs, hatchings, juvenile, adult turtle.

Read through the description of each stage.

	A mother turtle digs a hole in the mud at the edge of the pond. Then, she lays her eggs in the hole and covers them.
	When it is time, the hatchlings use an egg tooth to break out of the egg and go right to the water.
	The hatchlings grow larger becoming juveniles. This means they are not full grown yet, but they have all the body parts of an adult turtle.
	Finally, when the turtle is full grown, it is an adult. Adult turtles sun themselves on logs because, like frogs, they are cold-blooded.