Toads have dry and pebbly skin, and frogs
have moist and smooth skin. Frogs like water and toads prefer land.
Toads and frogs lay their eggs in water, because their babies start
off as tadpoles. The difference is that frog eggs are laid in
bunches or clusters, and they have a jelly-like substance around
them. Toads lay their eggs in lines or strands, on leaves of plants
that live in the water. A baby toad is a tadpole or toadlet
Frogs have slim bodies and long legs, and jump to get around. Toads
have short forelimbs and hop or walk. Toads have big glands behind
their eyes, called paratoid glands, which produce poison.
There are three names for baby frogs, depending on which segment of
the life cycle they are in. After 21 days of being an embryo, a baby
frog is called a polliwog and at this point, has a long tail and
lives in the water. It becomes a tadpole when it sprouts legs. As a
froglet, it has almost matured into a full-grown adult that breathes
with lungs, but still has a bit of a tail. The sequence is polliwog,
tadpole, froglet.
Frogs don’t actually drink water with their mouths; they drink it
through their skin. A frog’s skin absorbs water when it is in the
water so its body gets all of the hydration that it needs that way.
True toads do not have teeth and the skin on the head is typically
ossified to the skull. Toad’s skin lets out a bitter taste and smell
that burns the eyes and nostrils of its predators, much like a skunk
does. True toads belong to the family Bufonidae, which consists of
50 genera and nearly 600 species, native to all continents except
Antarctica and Australia. Toads belong to the order Anura, and are
actually a subset of frogs. In popular use, toad seems to be used to
refer to any frog that has a dry warty skin and short legs.
Frogs:
Need to live near water
Have smooth, moist skin that makes them look “slimy”.
Have a narrow body
Have higher, rounder, bulgier eyes
Have longer hind legs
Take long high jumps
Have many predators
Hibernate in the winter.
Toads:
Do not need to live near water to survive
Have rough, dry, bumpy skin
Have a wider body
Have lower, football shaped eyes
Have shorter, less powerful hind legs
Do not have many predators
Will run or take small hops rather than jump.
Bottom line, all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads and
neither frogs nor toads will give you warts.