Check out some of the weirdest warty frogs in North America

More than 100 unique species of frogs live in the US and Canada. A new tome spotlights them all.

By Popular Science Team

Posted on Jun 29, 2023

A green adult L. heckscheri frog sits amid some rocks and fungus.
Tadpoles of the river frog, Lithobates heckscheri (seen here as an adult), form schools that are unusually large for frogs, amassing as hundreds of larvae. C.K. Dodd, Jr.

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“No one can mistake a frog for any other vertebrate,” writes herpetologist C. Kenneth Dodd Jr. in his newly published edition of Frogs of the United States and Canada. The jumpy amphibians share the “same basic body plan,” he notes: big eyes, short heads, “little or no neck,” and a compact form. This combined with powerful limbs helps the animals get around easily on both land and water.

And, boy, do they get around. About 7,400 frog species known to biologists dig, leap, and swim across the planet. In Dodd’s new guide—which also features many of his photographs—he focuses on the 114 native and introduced species that dwell north of the US-Mexico border. (Hawaii is the only state without local frogs, though coquis have taken over the island chain with their raucous chirps since being introduced in the 1980s.)

Frogs and their warty subset, toads, typically live by water, where adults lay eggs and swimming tadpoles awkwardly grow into their legs. Yet, when it comes to habitats, the amphibians are a diverse bunch, with some found in prairies and tropics while others hop high in the mountains. Let’s meet a few of the fun ones from Dodd’s book.

An Amargosa Toad.
The Amargosa toad, or Anaxyrus nelsoni, has been found only in Oasis Valley in Nevada’s Nye County. There it lives in springs and wetlands surrounded by less hospitable desert. C. K. Dodd, Jr

[Related: Behold, the tapir frog’s magnificent snout]

A reddish Strecker’s Chorus Frog.
Strecker’s chorus frog, Pseudacris streckeri, can be found in sandy regions from southern Kansas to Texas’s Gulf Coast. It digs with its powerful forelimbs. C.K. Dodd, Jr.
A Pickerel Frog, or Lithobates palustris.
Lithobates palustris, which means “marsh frog,” are also known as pickerel frogs. When calling to attract mates, they make a sound that Dodd describes as a “continuous, low-pitched snore.” C.K. Dodd, Jr.

[Related: How did ancient frogs move between America and Australia?]

A Woodhouse’s toad on a bed of moss.
Many creatures hunt Anaxyrus woodhousii, Woodhouse’s toad, such as other frogs, hawks, snakes, and skunks. Mammalian hunters often disembowel the toad, Dodd writes, leaving its skin and toxic glands behind. C.K. Dodd, Jr.
A spotted chorus frog, with green markings, on a red stone.
The spotted chorus frog, Pseudacris clarkii, lives in grasslands in the American south. Froggy choirs are their loudest after heavy rainfall in the winter and spring. C.K. Dodd, Jr.
A cane toad in Florida.
Cane toads, Rhinella marina, are native to Texas, Central America, and South America. They have been introduced far beyond their natural locales, in attempts to control sugarcane beetles: These voracious frogs are now found in Hawaii and Florida, and in countries such as Australia, where the amphibians have sickened crocodiles and other predators not used to the toad toxin. C.K. Dodd, Jr.

Buy Frogs of the United States and Canada by C. Kenneth Dodd Jr. here.