Scientific Illustration

rhamphotheca:

Giant Prehistoric Frog Fossil Found in Madagascar

by Brian Handwerk

Scientists working in Madagascar found what may be the largest frog that ever lived, National Geographic News reported a year ago. The Beelzebufo, or “devil frog” was a “rather intimidating animal the size of a beach ball, 16 inches (41 centimeters) high and weighing about 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms).”

Paleontologist David Krause of Stony Brook University in New York and his colleagues began unearthing the the 70-million-year-old frog as a specimen in bits and pieces more than a decade earlier. “Over the years a 75-piece puzzle emerged that was only recently put together by fossil-frog expert Susan Evans of University College London,” National Geographic’s story said.

Evans, lead author of a paper detailing the find, said that, like its closest modern-day relatives — a group of big-mouthed frogs in South America called ceratophyrines — the devil frog also probably had a very aggressive temperament.”These ceratophyrines are really aggressive, ambush predators. They are round with big mouths, and they will sit there and grab onto anything that walks past.”

The animal sported a protective shield and powerful jaws that may have enabled it to kill hatchling dinosaurs, National Geographic News reported…

(read more: National Geo)    

Illustration by Luci Betti-Nash, courtesy Stony Brook University