Paragraph on “How does a Tadpole become a Frog?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

How does a Tadpole become a Frog?

If you read the answer to the previous question about what an amphibian is, you will be able to see that the story of the way the modern frog evolved, or came to be, has a lot to do with the reason for the frog spending an early part of his life as a tadpole !

For a tadpole is like a fish in that it breathes through gills and lives in the water — and also the ancestor of the frog was an amphibian that developed from a fish ! So you can understand that the reason for a metamorphosis, the change of a tadpole to a frog, lies in the history of the way the frog evolved into its present form. The female frog lays her eggs in water because they would dry up if she laid them on land.

The male frog fertilizes the eggs and after a short time, tadpoles begin to emerge from the spawn. They gradually start to lose their gills from the outside and develop lungs inside their bodies. Soon a pair of back legs shows. Then, after some days, front legs appear and the tadpole’s body begins to look very much like that of a frog. However, the tadpole still has a long tail but this soon becomes shorter and shorter, until it finally disappears.

The newly-formed frog can now live out of the water, moving about by jumping with its long powerful back legs. On returning to the water its new limbs prove very useful for swimming.