MAM Day Thirteen- Amphibian Interlude

It’s that time of year…The frogs will be heading across muddy VT roads to get to their Spring homes.

Many of them don’t make it because they get run over by cars. I collect their dried remains. I find them beautiful in a weird kind of way.
I call this assemblage “Dead Frog Dancing in the Moonlight”

I’m also an amphibian crossing guard directing traffic around the frogs and salamanders when they cross the roads on the first rainy night in Spring.

Sometimes I have to carry the frogs across the road myself.
If they do make it across they lay their myriads of eggs in the relative safety of vernal pools.
Here’s a Costa Rican frog wearing their snail party hat.
And this is a frog fossil.

“Fossil evidence suggests that frogs and toads, known as anurans (Roman meaning having no tail), have existed since at least the Jurassic Period, with some fossils dating back over 160 million years, and their evolutionary history is being revealed through discoveries like the 111-million-year-old fossil”. They survived beyond the time when dinosaurs disappeared.

The North Branch Nature Center is having an Amphibian art exhibit. There will be an opening tomorrow (March 14). It will be fun to see amphibian art in all different media even if you’re not into frogs the way I am.

Maybe I’ll see you there.

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