How does the green frog see?
The green frog (Lithobates clamitans) is a amphibian in the order Anura. Its eyes belong to the vision type Amphibian motion detector.
Measured in this species: night vision and motion (flicker fusion). One measured dial: a value other than colour or sharpness is measured in this species; colour and sharpness are not measured here. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has three colour receptor classes, like most people.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 2.8 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 21 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[9][8]
- Activity pattern: cathemeral.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 3 receptor classes: 432.5 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 502 nm (MWS (green)), 575 nm (LWS (long)) receptor set of nearest measured relative Lithobates catesbeianus (same genus Lithobates) | Estimated | [1][2] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 2.8 cycles per degree median of 1 relatives in genus Lithobates: Lithobates pipiens | Estimated | [3] |
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Night vision | Activity pattern cathemeral mode of 4 rows (of 4 rows): cathemeral; diurnal and nocturnal; nocturnal | Measured (not re-verified) | [4][5][6][7] |
| Rods vs cones mixed nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated | Derived | [4][5][6][7] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 21 Hz median of 1 rows (no bright-light flag) (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [21.0]) | Measured | [8] |
Related animals
- Northern leopard frog same vision type
- African clawed frog same vision type
- American bullfrog same vision type
- Asiatic toad same vision type
- Bufo toad same vision type
- Common frog same vision type
More amphibians: all amphibians with measured vision data.
Sources
- Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
- Yovanovich CAM, Koskela SM, Nevala N, Kondrashev SL, Kelber A, Donner K. 2017. The dual rod system of amphibians supports colour discrimination at the absolute visual threshold. Phil Trans R Soc B 372:20160066.. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0066
- Caves EM, Fernandez-Juricic E, Kelley LA (2024) Ecological and morphological correlates of visual acuity in birds. J Exp Biol 227(2): jeb246063. Supplementary Table S1.. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.246063
- Oliveira et al. 2017. AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Sci Data 4:170123.. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5
- Anderson SR, Wiens JJ. 2017. Out of the dark: 350 million years of conservatism and evolution in diel activity patterns in vertebrates. Evolution 71:1944-1959. Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.fg700. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fg700
- Schott RK, Fujita MK, Streicher JW, Gower DJ, Thomas KN, Loew ER, et al. (28 authors, last Bell RC). 2024. Diversity and evolution of frog visual opsins: spectral tuning and adaptation to distinct light environments. Mol Biol Evol 41:msae049.. doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msae049
- Moura et al. 2024. A phylogeny-informed characterisation of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases. PLoS Biol 22:e3002658. TetrapodTraits v3.0.1.. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22536349
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?