on tadpoles & pollywogs
you know tadpoles. little baby frogs, wiggly tail, such and such.
^ these guys.
"tadpole" is usually only used in reference to baby frogs, but other amphibians also have weird baby forms. The technical term is larvae , which is fun, because larvae is very much an invertebrate-associated term in the eyes of many. Not many vertebrates have larval forms (a form between egg and adult in which the body plan is distinct from both). Tadpoles are special little dudes.
The terms "tadpole" and "pollywog" are fun too, holdovers from early/Middle English words for baby frogs! They're pretty literal descriptions of what larval frogs look like. Tadpole = tad + pole, "tad" meaning "toad" and "pole" meaning "head" -- so, toad head. Meanwhile: pollywog is derived from polywygle, the pol- again meaning "head", and translating to wiggling head. which is. yeah. that sure is what that is!
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thanks for reading!🪱🦀
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images: pollywogs by Francisco Welter-Schultes (Wikimedia).
