Why doesn't a tadpole look like a frog?

Have you ever peeked into a pond and seen tiny dark wigglers? Each one has a round head and a swishy tail. These little swimmers are called tadpoles.

A frog has four legs and no tail at all. A tadpole has a tail and no legs. So why doesn't a tadpole look like a frog?

A tadpole is a baby frog. It lives in the pond water all day and all night. It cannot hop out onto land yet. So its whole body is made for the water.

That long tail is the tadpole's paddle. The tadpole swishes it from side to side to swim. Swish, swish! A tail pushes through water much better than legs can.

A tadpole breathes under the water, the way a fish does. It has gills, which means tiny flaps that take air out of the water. With its gills, the tadpole can stay under water all the time.

As the tadpole grows bigger, its body starts to change. Two small back legs pop out near its tail. They help it kick through the water. What do you think grows next?

Two front legs pop out too! Now the tadpole has four legs, like a frog. Soon those legs will help it climb out of the pond.

Inside its body, the gills slowly fade away. The tadpole grows lungs, so it can breathe air like you. It swims up to the top for quick gulps of air.

Next, the long tail gets shorter and shorter. The tadpole's body uses the tail as food while it grows. On land it will hop, so it will not need a swimming tail.

It has become a froglet, which means a tiny young frog with a stub of tail. The froglet climbs out of the water onto a mossy rock. For the first time, it sits in the open air.

Day by day, the froglet's stub of tail disappears. Its back legs grow long and strong for hopping. Now the froglet looks like a real frog!

Let's remember two words: gills and froglet. A tadpole is a baby frog, and its body is made for living in water.

Next time you spot a wiggly tadpole, you can whisper hello to a frog in the making.