Why it is most likely amphibious and able to swim long distances?
Answers
Step-by-step explanation:
Most of the Amphibia have a larval state, which has inherited anguilliform motion, and a laterally compressed tail to go with it, from fish ancestors. The corresponding tetrapod adult forms, even in the tail-retaining sub-class Urodeles, are sometimes aquatic to only a negligible extent (as in the genus Salamandra, whose tail has lost its suitability for aquatic propulsion), but the majority of Urodeles, from the newts to the giant salamander Megalobatrachus, retain a laterally compressed tail for a life that is aquatic to a considerable degree, which can use in a carangiform motion.[24]
Of the tailless amphibians (the frogs and toads of the sub-class Anura) the majority are aquatic to an insignificant extent in adult life, but in that considerable minority that are mainly aquatic we encounter for the first time the problem of adapting the tailless-tetrapod structure for aquatic propulsion. The mode that they use is unrelated to any used by fish. With their flexible back legs and webbed feet they execute something close to the leg movements of a human 'breast stroke,' rather more efficiently because the legs are better streamlined.[24]