h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A644177

This is my first entry to the Guide.

All comments gratefully received

CM

I like this entry, I think it conveys what frogs are like. I have a comment to make.

The sentence
'All amphibians breed in which is in fact that's where the name comes from (apparently in Greek amphi means dual and bios means life).' is not very clear. Perhaps you could rephase that.

I can't think of anything else to say, but I'll probably visit again at some point.

Woohoooo... Another chance to to plug the Taxonomy entry...
Perhaps you could link it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A600508

Yes, a good article. Very informative, and is the kind of off-beat article we like

You might point out that at some point they switch from gill breathing to lung breathing

I don't know whether 'amphibians' is a class with some more species than frogs. Perhaps you can clarify that.


And yes, great article !

Hi, Charlie Mouse!

You've made a very nice job of this - it doesn't look like a first entry to Peer Review!

A few points that occurred to me:
I think that it might be better to change the title to 'The Common Frog in the UK', since that's the main scope of your entry.

Where you mention the grand total of 7 species in the UK, I think you should list them -it's a bit distracting to see only the common frog and toad mentioned after that.

I agree with whoever said to emphasise the change from gills to lungs. Another amphibian feature worth emphasising is the lack of any special scales/feathers/fur covering: having just a wet skin surface is one reason why most amphibians won't travel into dry conditions.

Are frogs getting rarer in the UK? Amphibian numbers worldwide seem to be dropping fast. The outlook for conservation might help to round off the entry.

Anyway, those are just suggestions - if it's your first time in Peer Review it's important to know that you don't have to include everybody's suggestions: if you disagree with anything someone else suggests, just say so!

Azara

Thanks for all the helpful comments so far. I have made some changes

Some of your questions / observations seem to concern amphibians as a whole rather than just this one species. I'm not sure of the nettiquette (guideiquette?). Should I expand the common frog entry to be a wider amphibian entry, create a new amphibian entry or just not worry too much?

CM

Don't worry too much, Charlie Mouse!
There's bound to be some overlap between what you need to say about general amphibian features and what applies only to the common frog. There'll always be room for another entry later if someone wants to cover amphibians in general.

I really like the changes you've made - the new closing section in particular is really to the point. Well done!

Azara

General Applause !!!!!!!!!!!

More applause!!! Nice article .

BTW, I think the curled up long tongue is another 'neat evolutionary trick'. So the frog can just sit 'somewhere quiet and slightly damp' and *still* catch lunch.

I like the last paragraph you've added. It finishes it off well. I'd keep this entry to the common frog, it could get very long if you covered general amphibians. As Azara said that could be done in separate entries.

Hiya!

This is your first entry? My gosh, it's good

I like your writing style, it does credit to the common frog's adaptations

Now, we need a frog smiley, don't you think?

Stay ,
WD

I'm very impressed. Proper GuideMLing as well! Well done!

There is one thing that jarred for me (being pedantic here). Where you talk about how the frog produces thousands of eggs to give them a chance to survive, you say

It works (we don't call them common frogs for nothing).

Whereas I would think it would work better if you changed the punctuation. Something like

It works - we don't call them common frogs for nothing.

Although that doesn't look as good now as it did when I thought of it when I was half-way through the Entry. Maybe

It worksWe don't call them common frogs for nothing..

But that would disrupt the flow.

Oh, what the hell, why not just leave it alone?

It seemed like such a great idea to mention that at the time, but not anymore...

Great entry, Charlie Mouse, can't wait to see it on the front page.

Hi Charlie Mouse,

What a entry!

I think there is an "of" missing from the first paragraph but basically I can't touch it. I also think you have just the right balance of explaining what an anphibian is without losing the focus of the entry.

A minor point might be that due to their lack of scales/fur etc, and having a sort of semi-permiable skin, frogs may leave the pond, but they have to stay in pretty damp places or they dry out. But then most of the UK is damp most of the time so that can't be too much of a problem for them!



Ugi

I like the changes you have made. The origin of the word anphibians is much clearer now. I haven't got much else to add, apart from a suggestion that the technical name for the common frog might want to be in brackets, as I think that is the common way of doing things.

Also, strictly speaking, I don't think you can include fish as vertebrates, as the are apparently some invertebrate fish. I think the starfish is an example, and the jellyfish. Mammals are fine, as they are all are vertebrates, but I am not sure about birds and reptiles, although I suspect that they are all vertebrate. I would check these.

I would recommend that you look at a website with a taxanomic tree on it, if you want to be sure. Searching for taxonomic tree on google should give you some useful websites.

Apart from that, I can't think of anything else to say.

Starfish and jellyfish are no more fish than silverfish are, though they all have the word in their names.

Quite true, the starfish and the jellyfish are completely different genuses; I believe the jellyfish is a cnidarian and I think the starfish is closely related... but I'm trying to remember back to my A Level Biology, and that was 3 years ago , so I might be wrong in the detail. What is certains is that they are not in the same genus as fish at all.

I still think this is one great entry

Stay ,
WD

Informative, lively and not at all boring. A great entry, in my opinion. Just the sort of thing I like to see in the Guide. Good work!

Liked this one a lot. Just a couple of quibbles - please feel free to ignore them. The full name is as follows - Rana temporaria, Common European frog (Grass frog).

You wrote -
*They have no particular need to defend territories or *find mates* and thanks to another neat evolutionary trick, they probably don't need to hunt*
But, as you went on to say, they *do* need to find mates. You could maybe lose that bit or maybe be a little clearer about how they have no particular need to find mates. Also, they *will* hunt slugs and worms. OK, they don't have to move *fast*, but they still have to go looking. . .

Also, in the UK we are losing an estimated 1000 ponds a year. Perhaps you could encourage people to dig one?

Sorry about the asterix and pedantry. But if they'd just allow us italics. . .
. . . . COMING IN FEB/MARCH - SPAWNCAM!. . . .

BUT ON THE WHOLE, LOVED IT!