How does the common toad see?
The common toad (Bufo bufo) is a amphibian in the order Anura. Its eyes belong to the vision type Amphibian motion detector.
Measured in this species: colour and night vision. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has one receptor class for colour, so it sees brightness but no hue.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 2.8 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 12.8 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[12][10]
- Activity pattern: nocturnal.
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 1 receptor class: 562 nm (LWS (long)) measured in this species | Measured (not re-verified) | [1] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 2.8 cycles per degree median of 1 relatives in order Anura: Lithobates pipiens | Group default | [2] |
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Night vision | Activity pattern nocturnal mode of 7 rows (of 7 rows): cathemeral; diurnal; nocturnal; nocturnal/crepuscular | Measured (not re-verified) | [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] |
| Rods vs cones rod-dominated nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated | Derived | [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 12.8 Hz median of 1 relatives in family Bufonidae: Rhinella marina | Estimated | [10][11] |
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
- 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
- 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
- Eye-body allometry across biphasic ontogeny in anuran amphibians (NHM Data Portal). doi.org/10.5519/7qw9vju8
- 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
- Wan YC, Navarrete Mendez MJ, O'Connell LA, Uricchio LH, Roland AB, Maan ME, Ron SR, Betancourth-Cundar M, Pie MR, Howell KA, Richards-Zawacki CL, Cummings ME, Cannatella DC, Santos JC, Tarvin RD. 2023. Selection on visual opsin genes in diurnal Neotropical frogs and loss of the SWS2 opsin in poison frogs. Mol Biol Evol 40:msad206.. doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad206
- 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
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
- 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?