#KnowledgeBomb: Tree frogs and their babies
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @JenSquard
There are millions of amazing tree frog images out there, because they are one of the most brilliantly colored species on the planet. There are tons and tons of different species, all with unique behaviors and morphology, but the one thing they have in common is their life in the trees.
Tree frogs spend the majority of their life up in trees, and generally only come down to land to mate and spawn. They all have big pads on their phalanges (fingers and toes) that help them stick to the tree and leaves. This allows them to climb upside down, go down a tree head first, and cling to leaves through wind and rain.
They have a wide variety of predators, like snakes and birds, but some are toxic (hence the wild colors). They eat bugs and blend into their surroundings.
Okay, enough of the boring stuff, here is my favorite part of tree frogs. This doesn’t apply to all of them, but some of the species will climb down to the forest floor to mate and spawn, then once their cute little babies turn into tiny tadpoles, they attach them to their back (some species it is the male that does this, in others its the female) and carry them up to have them develop in the canopy. 
Some species do it one at a time, but others attach them all and carry them up together. They take their precious cargo up to plants called bromeliads - they are plants that catch water in pools and live up in the canopy - they grow off of other trees. Imagine the top of a pineapple, but filled with water. They take the babies and drop them in there for them to have shelter, food and a wet place to grow. Some tadpoles are cannibals so they put one baby per pool, but some plop them all in there together. It’s also thought to help increase the survival rate of the babies since they don’t have to make the journey up to the top of the trees when they are ready. I totes magotes got to see this firsthand when we were in Ecuador, and it BLEW MY MIND.
Do you have something you want featured as a Knowledge Bomb? Let me know and I’ll get er done! @JenSquard