| The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
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| tadpole |
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| larval, aquatic stage of any of the amphibian animals. After hatching from the egg, the tadpole, sometimes called a polliwog, is gill-breathing and legless and propels itself by means of a tail. During the period of metamorphosis it develops the lungs, legs, and other organs of the adult and, in the frog and the toad, loses the tail. |
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| | | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press. |
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