Paragraph on “What is an Amphibian?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

What is an Amphibian?

Amphibians are animals having a backbone that lay eggs and live in the water and also live on land. The frog is one.

They evolved from lungfish which 300 million years ago learnt how to stay alive for short periods without water, because their habitat, at times, dried out. Therefore, as t hey could not breathe with their gills when out of water, in order to survive they began to develop over a long period, lungs — organs for breathing, inside their bodies.

By about i6o million years ago, the early amphibians had fully developed ; they had long bodies and grew to about three and a half metres in length. In place of fins they had four limbs and ten fingers and ten toes, and breathed when on land, completely with their internal lungs. Though clumsy on land, they moved with ease in the water.

Also living at this time were reptiles which ate the same food as the amphibians. But the reptiles were so much more successful at scrounging for this food that as a result the amphibians, not getting enough to eat, died out, that is, became extinct. However, a few small forms of the amphibians survived and from these descended the salamander, the newt, the frog and the toad we see about us today.