Teachers: download Amphibian Alert!
a curriculum for teaching children about amphibians and their global population declines.
Reptile Discovery Center Activity Guide
Reptile Discovery Center Programs
What's in a Name?
Harlequin Frogs
The 44-plus species of harlequin frogs are easily the jesters of the Central and South American amphibian court. For one thing, these so-called frogs are actually toads. And they can be easily confused with dart-poison frogs because they sport brightly colored smooth skin, and produce highly toxic skin secretions. But harlequin frogs intrigue herpetologists for other reasons: They have a Bidder’s organ, a rudimentary gland that enables males to develop functioning ovaries if their testicles are removed; and they exhibit "transsexual calling talents"—meaning both sexes are able to call during breeding season. Furthermore, tadpoles hatch about 24 hours after the females lay their egg strands.
ZooGoer 30(3) 1999. Copyright 1999 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved
Gharial
Animal names, both common and scientific, often include misspelled words, especially when they are derived from languages unfamiliar to the person naming them. The crocodylian called “gharial” (see “Gharial Star in the Reptile Discovery Center and on Gharial Cam”.) offers an example. Its scientific name is Gavialis gangeticus. Gavialis, the genus name, and gavial, an often-used common name, are corruptions of the word ghariyal, which is Hindi for crocodile. Ghariyal, in turn, is derived from the Hindi ghara, a type of Indian pot. The shape of the knob on the end of an adult male gharial’s snout resembles the shape of the pot. The knob is called a ghara. The second word in the species name, gangeticus, means “belonging to the Ganges River,” one of just a handful of rivers of the Indian subcontinent where the species is found. Another species known as the “false gavial” goes by Tomistoma schlegelii—a scientific name that refers to an entirely different feature. Tomistoma means sharp mouth. Tomos is Greek for cutting or sharp; and stoma is Greek for mouth. This refers to the animal’s long slender snout, which, of course, is why it was once believed to be a gharial. A Dutch zoologist named Schlegel is credited with discovering this species, hence schlegelii. This suggests a better common name might have been Schlegel’s sharp-mouth crocodile, but false gavial seems to have stuck.
ZooGoer 30(6) 2002. Copyright 2002 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved
