spadefoot toad


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spade·foot toad

 (spād′fo͝ot′)
n.
Any of various burrowing anuran amphibians of the families Pelobatidae, of Eurasia and northern Africa, and Scaphiopodidae, of North America, having a horny projection on the side of the hind foot that is used for digging. Also called spadefoot.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.spadefoot toad - a burrowing toad of the northern hemisphere with a horny spade-like projection on each hind footspadefoot toad - a burrowing toad of the northern hemisphere with a horny spade-like projection on each hind foot
anuran, batrachian, frog, salientian, toad, toad frog - any of various tailless stout-bodied amphibians with long hind limbs for leaping; semiaquatic and terrestrial species
family Pelobatidae, Pelobatidae - the amphibian family of spadefoot toads
Scaphiopus hammondii, western spadefoot - this spadefoot toad live in California
Scaphiopus multiplicatus, southern spadefoot - this spadefoot toad lives in the southwestern United States
plains spadefoot, Scaphiopus bombifrons - this spadefoot toad lives in plains and hills and river bottoms in areas of low rainfall east of the Rocky Mountains
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
That's because the Eastern spadefoot toad, now completely buried, is a burrowing toad.
Whether she describes a spadefoot toad spending most of its life deep underground listening only for rain or recounts the challenges she faced in "trusting the music" during her piano lessons, Hurd strives for precision and balance.
We also collected five species of amphibians in the Santa Cruz River and Rio Puerco watersheds: American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), Couch's spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus couchi), prairie spadefoot toad (Spea bombifrons), red-spotted toad (Anaxyrus punctatus), and an unidentified Bufo.
Amphibians like the eastern spadefoot toad, and reptiles like eastern hognose snakes and spotted turtles, can also be found in the barrens or along the shore of Rensselaer Lake.
In comparison, Dave's Pond yielded 21 species of amphibians and reptiles including the state endangered crawfish frog (Lithobates areolatus); the spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus holbrookii), which had previously been known in Indiana no closer than 65 miles to the southeast; the newt (Notophthalmus viridescens), which has not been found recently at any other locality in Vigo County or the surrounding counties in Indiana and Illinois; and Kirtland's snake (Clonophis kirtlandii), another species of special concern.
The plains spadefoot toad spawns offspring that grow up faster if dad is a different species called the Mexican spadefoot, says Karin Pfennig of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
But the spadefoot toad is deep and quiet underground in her burrow, listening for one particular sound.
We used spadefoot toad larvae to evaluate assumptions and test predictions of the Wilbur and Collins model for plasticity in age and size at metamorphosis.
For example, facultatively cannibalistic spadefoot toad tadpoles (Spea bombifrons) ingest nonkin in preference to kin when the cannibal is satiated, but these tadpoles become less selective when food is limited (Pfennig et al.
A tiny Couch's spadefoot toad hops around the pool's edge.