Frogs live in a variety of environments, from fast flowing rivers and pools to tree tops. Each frog has its own unique hands and feet that help it to survive in its environment.
Feet are an essential part of a frog’s life and help them to move swiftly, whether it’s jumping or swimming. Their feet can be webbed for swimming and flying, padded for climbing or spaded for digging.
Some frogs have toes that are attached by webbing for swimming, but others have fingers with suction cups on the end to climb trees. Some frogs have toes shaped like claws for digging.
The most famous frogs have toes that can be used for flight, such as the Asian Flying Frogs (genus Rhacophorus). They use their webbed toes as a parachute to jump out of the treetops and into the ponds below.
They also have large finger- and toe-pads that allow them to climb and hide in the trees.
Having toes that can quickly propel them through their environment helps frogs stay active and social.
The development of toes and their functions will be an interesting area for both morphological and ecological studies in the future.
The toe pad epithelium is stratified, with four to five cell layers separated by fluid-filled channels. The surface of the outer two layers is covered by a dense array of nanopillars. This reflects the cellular dislocation with respect to the subarticular tubercles, and the unspecialized ventral epithelium (figure 3b). The outer two layers also contain fibrils that originate from the nanopillars.