Best Terrestrial

The ornate horned frog (Ceratophrys ornata), native to the grasslands of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, is a terrestrial amphibian known for its aggressive predatory behavior. It possesses a remarkably wide mouth and a disproportionately large body, allowing it to consume vertebrate prey that is ne...

Xuanzang was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled overland to India around 629–645 CE to collect sacred texts, covering roughly 25,000 kilometres and producing a detailed account of Central Asian lands.

The long-nosed horned frog (Megophrys nasuta) is a large amphibian native to the rainforests of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. It is identified by the prominent, sharp, horn-like projections extending above its eyes and snout, which break up its outline. This terrestrial species relies on...

Coconut crabs are giant, terrestrial crabs belonging to the Anomura order. They inhabit tropical islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans and are notable for being the largest land-dwelling arthropod. These crabs, part of the Coenobitidae family, play a significant role in island ecosystems and are...

The hip-pocket frog (Assa darlingtoni) is a small, terrestrial amphibian native to the temperate rainforests of southeastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales in Australia. It is distinguished by a unique reproductive strategy in which the male carries the fertilized eggs and developing ta...

The Mallorcan midwife toad (Alytes muletensis) is a small, vulnerable amphibian endemic to the Tramuntana mountains of Mallorca, Spain. It was originally described from the fossil record before living populations were discovered in 1977. Like other midwife toads, the male carries the fertilized eggs...

Gardiner's Seychelles frog (Sechellophryne gardineri) is a minuscule amphibian reaching only about 11 millimeters in length, making it one of the smallest frogs in the world. It is entirely endemic to the damp leaf litter of the forests on the islands of Mahé and Silhouette in the Seychelles. This s...

Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis is a remarkably well-preserved fossil scorpion dating back to the Carboniferous period approximately 310 million years ago. It’s notable for possessing lungs, an unusual adaptation among scorpions at this time, suggesting a more active terrestrial lifestyle than previous...

The Surinam horned frog (Ceratophrys cornuta) is a large terrestrial amphibian native to the Amazon Basin in South America. It features prominent, horn-like projections above its eyes and relies on cryptic coloration to blend seamlessly into the forest leaf litter. This heavy-bodied species is an am...

Pakicetus attocki is an early Eocene cetacean known from fossils found in Pakistan, near the ancient shoreline of the Tethys Sea. Although it retained four weight-bearing limbs and was primarily adapted for movement on land, features of its skull and ear region identify it as an early whale relative...

The northern corroboree frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi) is a small, distinctive amphibian endemic to the high-altitude bogs and woodlands of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It is recognized by its striking yellow and black stripes, which serve as warning coloration for its toxic...

Ceratophrys cranwelli, commonly known as Cranwell's Horned Frog, is a terrestrial amphibian native to the Gran Chaco region of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil. These sit-and-wait predators have large mouths and distinctive cranial features resembling horns, and are widely bred in captivity....

The Common Frog (Rana temporaria) is a widely distributed amphibian found throughout Europe, ranging from Ireland in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east. Outside of the breeding season, adults are primarily terrestrial, inhabiting damp woodlands, gardens, and meadows. They emerge from winter...

The Baw Baw Frog (Philoria frosti) is a critically endangered amphibian restricted to the Baw Baw Plateau in Victoria, Australia. It is a terrestrial species that inhabits the alpine and sub-alpine environments of the region, typically dwelling among vegetation, logs, and rocks in moist gullies. The...

The Dusky Gopher Frog (Lithobates sevosus) is a critically endangered amphibian historically native to the longleaf pine ecosystems of the southern United States. Its current wild population is restricted to just a few isolated ponds in Harrison and Jackson counties in Mississippi. The frog relies h...

Meriwether Lewis was an American army officer and explorer who, with William Clark, led the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1804 to 1806. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase, the expedition traveled from the Mississippi watershed to the Pacific Coast, recording ge...

The Argentine horned frog (Ceratophrys ornata) is a large terrestrial amphibian native to the grasslands and wetlands of South America, particularly Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. It is an ambush predator characterized by a notably wide mouth and a massive body size, which has led to the popular ni...

Nain Singh Rawat was a 19th-century Indian explorer and surveyor trained by the British Survey of India as one of its so-called pundit explorers. Traveling in disguise during the 1860s and 1870s, he measured routes and elevations across regions of Tibet that were then largely closed to Europeans. He...

William Clark was an American soldier, explorer, territorial official, and Indian agent who co-led the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Meriwether Lewis from 1804 to 1806. The expedition traveled from the Mississippi watershed across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, documenting routes, lands...

Samuel de Champlain was a French navigator, cartographer, explorer, and colonial administrator active in northeastern North America during the early seventeenth century. He founded Quebec in 1608, explored portions of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes region, and formed alliances with several I...

The Christmas Island red crab belongs to the Geocarcinidae family and is native solely to Christmas Island. It’s notable for one of the largest animal migrations on Earth, with millions of crabs moving overland each year to breed in the ocean. These terrestrial crabs are primarily found in coastal f...

Heinrich Barth was a nineteenth-century German geographer, linguist, and explorer whose travels produced extensive records of North and Central Africa. From 1850 to 1855 he crossed the Sahara and visited regions around Lake Chad and the Niger River while participating in a British-sponsored expediti...

The smoky jungle frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus) is a large, heavily built amphibian native to the tropical rainforests of Central and northern South America. It is one of the largest frog species in its geographic range, possessing a distinctive smoky gray or brown coloration that provides excel...

Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish-born fur trader and explorer whose journeys mapped major waterways across what is now Canada. In 1789 he followed the river later named for him to the Arctic Ocean, and in 1793 he completed the first recorded crossing of North America north of Mexico to reach the P...

Sir Richard Francis Burton was a British explorer, army officer, diplomat, translator, and linguist active during the nineteenth century. With John Hanning Speke, he led an East African expedition that reached Lake Tanganyika in 1858, making the pair the first known Europeans to see the lake. Burton...

Vasco Nunez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer and colonial administrator active in the early 16th century. In 1513 he crossed the Isthmus of Darien in present-day Panama and became the first documented European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas, which he named the South Sea. He also helped e...

The elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum (Thylamys elegans) is a Chilean marsupial that stores fat in its tail to withstand seasonal food shortages.

Wilfred Thesiger was a British explorer who between 1945 and 1950 made two crossings of the Arabian Empty Quarter, becoming one of the last Western explorers to travel that desert by traditional means.

The tusked frog (*Adelotus brevis*) is a terrestrial amphibian native to eastern Australia, specifically in Queensland and New South Wales. The species is distinguished by the presence of elongated, fang-like bony projections in the lower jaw of males. These structures are used as weapons in physica...