COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF THE THYROID GLANDS OF JAPANESE FROGS

Abstract

Using the adult frogs collected from various places of Japan as materials, form, size and position of the thyroid glands were observed. Specific difference in the thyroid gland was clearly found in all species examined, although local variation was also conspicuous in every species, though in lesser degree. Therefore introduction of the thyroid gland as one of characters in anuran classification seems to be useful in practice at least in certain cases.