The common frog Rana temporaria, also known as the European common frog, European common brown frog, European grass frog, European Holarctic true frogs, European pond frogs or European brown frogs, is a semi-aquatic amphibian of the family Ranidae, found throughout much of Europe as far north as Scandinavia and as far east as the Urals, except for most of Iberia, Southern Italy, and the southern Balkans. The farthest west it can be found is Ireland. It is also found in Asia, and eastward to Japan.
Common frogs metamorphose through three distinct developmental life stages ââ¬â aquatic larva, terrestrial juvenile, and adult. They have corpulent bodies with a rounded snout, webbed feet and long hind legs adapted for swimming in water and hopping on land. Common frogs are often confused with the common toad Bufo bufo, but frogs can easily be distinguished as they have longer legs, hop, and have a moist skin, whereas toads crawl and have a dry `warty` skin. The spawn of the two species also differs in that frogspawn is laid in clumps and toadspawn is laid in long strings.
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