Juanita Browne: How frogspawn transforms from tadpole to frog

I was always amazed by this creature that begins life looking like a small fish but transforms into a land-loving four-legged creature, with lungs like us

Frogspawn is a welcome sign of spring. Picture: iStock

As a young child, for many years, I enjoyed collecting frogspawn. There was a small drain at the bottom of the field behind my house, a field that also contained an old abandoned dump truck – my modest laboratory herpetarium. Each spring, I would carefully collect a clump of frogspawn from the drain in a small bucket and carry it to the dumper bucket, which was filled with rainwater colonised by algae and some water plants. I really enjoyed my close-up view of these little creatures as they developed into froglets over the following weeks.

Metamorphosis