They inhabit a wide variety of habitats in freshwater, on or under the
ground, or in trees. Typically starting their lives as aquatic larvae
with gills, they generally undergo metamorphosis into adults with air-
breathing lungs. They use their skins as a secondary respiratory
surface; some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs and
rely entirely on their skins. The earliest amphibians evolved in the
Devonian Period from fish with lungs and bony-limbed fins. The three
modern orders of amphibians are Anura (the frogs and toads), Caudata
(the salamanders), and Gymnophiona (the caecilians). The number of known
species is approximately 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. The
smallest living amphibian is a frog from New Guinea with a length of
just 7.7 mm (0.3 in). The largest is the 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) Chinese
giant salamander, but this is dwarfed by the extinct 9 m (30 ft)
Prionosuchus from Brazil. With their complex reproductive needs and
permeable skins, amphibians are often indicators of ecological
disturbance, and in recent decades their populations have declined
around the globe.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibian>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1644:
The Ming dynasty of China fell when the Chongzhen Emperor
committed suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_dynasty>
1849:
After Lord Elgin, the Governor General of Canada, signed the
Rebellion Losses Bill into law to compensate the residents of Lower
Canada for losses incurred in Rebellions of 1837, protestors rioted and
burned down the Parliament building in Montreal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_the_Parliament_Buildings_in_Montreal>
1915:
First World War: Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed
at Anzac Cove while British and French troops landed at Cape Helles to
begin the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman
Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign>
1945:
German troops retreated from northern Finland, bringing the
Lapland War to a close.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapland_War>
1990:
Violeta Chamorro took office as the President of Nicaragua, the
first woman elected in her own right as a head of state in the Americas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violeta_Chamorro>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
paint the town red:
To party or celebrate in a rowdy, wild manner, especially in a public
place.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paint_the_town_red>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Cum ergo spiritus Dei descendit, indiuidua patientia comitatur
eum. · When God's Spirit descends, then Patience accompanies Him
indivisibly.
--Tertullian
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tertullian>
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