Question: How are we similar to amphibians?

Anthony Redmond answered on 14 Jan 2019: last edited 14 Jan 2019 4:05 pm

Both ourselves and amphibians belong to a group called tetrapods, which means ‘four feet’. Tetrapods adapted from fish ancestors to live on land (but there are some exceptions, amphibians are semi-aquatic, and some other tetrapods have returned to the sea–like seals, or whales!). I can think of a couple of major things that make us similar, beyond all of the things we have in common with more distant relatives, like fish, and all other life!!

Our most obvious shared character is that we each have four limbs, we also shared the muscles, bones, and joints, associated with these limbs! Amphibians have hands and even thumbs too!

We also have lungs in common. I think at least some amphibians can also do gas exchange through their skin!

We also have some very important parts of our DNA that our unique to tetrapods, such as those involved in coping with the environment on land instead of in water, e.g. genes associated with smelling or seeing on land, and genes important for immune defence against pathogens found on land. Amphibians often have a mix of genes for both land and water based living though!

Oh, we have unique skulls compared to fish too. I’m sure theres lots of other things that I have missed but this is a start!