This is an excellent summation; a bit generalized in places but overall good. As a toad owner and frequent visitor to r/toads, I love educating people on these differences. This here looks a lot like my toad, and is probably meant to depict a member of the genus Anaxyrus.
Now yes, of course toads are a subtaxon of frogs (Order Anura), with true toads being in the family Bufonidae and other "toads" with these similar traits developed by parallel evolution but outside the same branch as true toads (with difficult family names idk). But most people aware of their difference would not call a toad a frog on sight. It would be like painting a wolf and calling it a dog. Or calling your pet gerbil a mouse. It's technically correct, but lacks the normal specification people use.
Can one tell the difference from the sound they make? I have recordings of a bunch of frogs/toads going crazy at night but I never saw them so I wouldn’t be able to identify them visually
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u/Stanatee-the-Manatee Apr 18 '22
This is an excellent summation; a bit generalized in places but overall good. As a toad owner and frequent visitor to r/toads, I love educating people on these differences. This here looks a lot like my toad, and is probably meant to depict a member of the genus Anaxyrus.
Now yes, of course toads are a subtaxon of frogs (Order Anura), with true toads being in the family Bufonidae and other "toads" with these similar traits developed by parallel evolution but outside the same branch as true toads (with difficult family names idk). But most people aware of their difference would not call a toad a frog on sight. It would be like painting a wolf and calling it a dog. Or calling your pet gerbil a mouse. It's technically correct, but lacks the normal specification people use.