spadefoot toad

noun

spade·​foot toad ˈspād-ˌfu̇t- 

: any of a family (Pelobatidae) of burrowing toads having the inner bone of the tarsus edged with a strong horny sheath with which they dig

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

When the Land Comes to Life To survive the dry times, the spadefoot toad will spend years of its life burrowed down in the mud beneath the playa floor. —John Richard Saylor, Discover Magazine, 18 Apr. 2021

Though the story of spadefoot toad cannibalism has been well researched, it is not fully resolved. —Bill Schutt, Discover Magazine, 3 Jan. 2019

Female plains spadefoot toads start seeking out not the duckish quacks of their own species but the baritone trills of the Mexican spadefoot toad. —Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 7 July 2022

However, the court rejected arguments from environmentalists that new homes posed dramatic threats to the gnatcatcher, a type of songbird, and the spadefoot toad. —San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Mar. 2022

Pfennig’s spadefoot toads in Arizona have ever-shorter time frames to grow from tadpole to toad as the western U.S. sees more droughts and wildfires. —Starre Vartan, National Geographic, 26 June 2019

In another study, one Texas feral hog was found with 49 eastern spadefoot toads in its stomach. —Shannon Tompkins, Houston Chronicle, 24 Jan. 2018

For instance, spadefoot toads, in the American Southwest, lay their eggs in transient ponds, some no larger than puddles. —National Geographic, 19 Feb. 2017

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Word History

First Known Use

1867, in the meaning defined above