the.com/spadefoot
a toad with shovels for feet that waits years underground for one perfect rainstorm
means A burrowing toad of the family Scaphiopodidae (and related Old World species) named for the hard, spade-like projection on each hind foot that it uses to dig backward into the soil.
from A plain English compound of "spade" and "foot," describing exactly what you see — a foot built like a digging tool. "Spade" goes back to Old English spadu, the flat-bladed shovel, a word with cousins across the Germanic languages and a likely deeper relative in Greek spathē, "a broad blade" (the same root that gives us "spatula"). The toad's scientific family name, Scaphiopodidae, says the same thing in Greek: skaphis, "a digging tool," plus pous, "foot."
- hind blades
- keratin spurs let them dig backward into earth
- buried hermit
- can stay underground for years between rains
- sprint frogs
- tadpoles race from egg to toad in weeks
- carnivore morph
- some tadpoles grow jaws to eat each other
- smell of peanuts
- their skin secretion reportedly smells nutty
couch's spadefoot — toad species found in southwestern us deserts that emerges only during heavy rains
plains spadefoot — toad species across central north america that digs burrows with its spade-like hind feet
eastern spadefoot — toad species in eastern united states known for explosive breeding after spring rains