🐸 Amphibians
Amphibians usually start life in water as swimmers with gills, like tadpoles, then grow legs and lungs. Their skin is soft and damp, and many breathe partly through it. Frogs, toads and salamanders are amphibians.
The biggest and the smallest here: the Japanese giant salamander and the golden poison frog
What makes an amphibian?
- Soft, damp skin with no scales, fur or feathers.
- Most start life in water as swimmers with gills, like tadpoles.
- They grow legs and lungs as they grow up.
- Many breathe partly through their skin, so they need damp places.
9 animals here
- American bullfrog
- Golden poison frog
- Axolotl
- American toad
- Spotted salamander
- Hellbender
- Wood frog
- Goliath frog
- Japanese giant salamander
American bullfrog
Golden poison frog
Axolotl
American toad
Spotted salamander
Hellbender
Wood frog
Goliath frog
Japanese giant salamanderRecord holders here
- Heaviest: the Japanese giant salamander, 51 lb23 kg1
- Lives longest: the Japanese giant salamander, 70 years70 years1
Amphibians for kids, A to Z
- 🐸 American bullfrog: Named for its deep, bellowing call, like a bull's.
- 🐸 American toad: It sheds its skin, then eats it, and does not give you warts.
- 🐸 Axolotl: It keeps its feathery gills its whole life and can regrow its legs.
- 🐸 Golden poison frog: It is small and bright yellow, and its skin is very poisonous.
- 🐸 Goliath frog: The biggest frog in the world, and it hardly makes a sound.
- 🐸 Hellbender: A big salamander that breathes through its wrinkly skin under river rocks.
- 🐸 Japanese giant salamander: A giant salamander with tiny eyes that feels the water to find food.
- 🐸 Spotted salamander: It hides underground, then walks to ponds on rainy spring nights.
- 🐸 Wood frog: It can freeze in winter, then thaw out and hop away in spring.
- Smithsonian's National Zoo, checked 30 October 2026.