Ancient "Devil Frog" Discovered!
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I read this in Yahoo! News :
Ancient "devil frog" may have eaten baby dinosaurs
By Will Dunham Mon Feb 18, 5:03 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was the biggest, baddest, meanest froggy ever to have hopped on Earth.
Scientists on Monday announced the discovery in northwestern Madagascar of a bulky amphibian dubbed the "devil frog" that lived 65 million to 70 million years ago and was so nasty it may have eaten newborn dinosaurs.
This brute was larger than any frog living today and may be the biggest frog ever to have existed, according to paleontologist David Krause of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, one of the scientists who found the remains.
Its name, Beelzebufo ampinga, came from Beelzebub, the Greek for devil, and bufo -- Latin for toad. Ampinga means "shield," named for an armor-like part of its anatomy.
Beelzebufo (pronounced bee-el-zeh-BOOF-oh) was 16 incheslong and weighed an estimated 10 pounds (4.5 kg).
It was powerfully built and possessed a very wide mouth and powerful jaws. It probably didn't dine daintily.
"It's not outside the realm of possibility that Beelzebufo took down lizards and mammals and smaller frogs, and even -- considering its size -- possibly hatchling dinosaurs," Krause said in a telephone interview.
"It would have been quite mean," added paleontologist Susan Evans of University College London, another of the scientists.
Their findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Even though it lived far away, Beelzebufo appears to be closely related to a group of frogs that live today in South America, the scientists said. They are nicknamed "Pac-Man" frogs due to their huge mouths. Some have little horns on their heads, and the scientists think Beelzebufo also may have had horns -- a fitting touch for the "devil frog."
Beelzebufo was bigger than any of its South American kin or any other living frog -- "as if it was on steroids," Krause said. The largest one today is the goliath frog of West Africa, up to 12.5 inches long and 7.2 pounds (3.3 kg).
The presence of Beelzebufo in Madagascar and its modern relatives in South America is the latest sign a long-lost land bridge once may have linked Madagascar to Antarctica -- much warmer then -- and South America, the scientists said.
That would have let animals move overland among those land masses. Fossils have been found of other animals in Madagascar from Beelzebufo's time similar to South American ones.
KING OF FROGS
The first frogs appeared about 180 million years ago, and their basic body plan has remained unchanged. Beelzebufo lived during the Cretaceous Period at the end of the age of dinosaurs, which went extinct along with many other types of animals 65 million years ago when a huge space rock clobbered Earth.
Beelzebufo did not live an aquatic lifestyle, hopping among lily pads, the scientists said. Instead, it lived in a semi-arid environment and may have hunted like its modern-day relatives, which camouflage themselves and jump out at prey.
Its first fragmentary fossils were found in 1993, and the scientists have since assembled enough fragments to piece its remains together like a jigsaw puzzle, Krause said.
While it was the king of frogs, Beelzebufo is not the largest amphibian ever to have lived. Many reached truly astounding dimensions, such as the crocodile-like Prionosuchus that grew to an estimated 30 feet during the Permian Period, which ended about 250 million years ago.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
Click on the link above to see an illustration of this devil frog!
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wow
so this frog dun eat insects le
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Originally posted by a-Lost-9uY:
wow
so this frog dun eat insects le
Hanor! It's pretty frightening, isn't it?
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Cool!
I want it as a pet!
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yeah.. it's Frogzilla!
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rOar
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Err the illlustration is like a bigger version of the Pacman frog leh
The artist dun have much imagination *lol*
I don't mind keeping one as a pet
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The so-called devil frog of the past
Modern day Pacman frog....Pls lor...it's like the artist drew a pacman frog and made it larger nia
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*imagines the size of the frog legs .....
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Originally posted by the Bear:
yeah.. it's Frogzilla!
Battleon!!
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Originally posted by Fatum:
*imagines the size of the frog legs .....
Slurp!!!!!!
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They should had publish the pix of what they found instead... what loads of craps they write without proof!
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Originally posted by caleb_chiang:
They should had publish the pix of what they found instead... what loads of craps they write without proof!
I think the pix of what they found are just bones :PSo they decided to do an artist impression
And the artist impression looks like the modern day Pacman frog aka Ornate Horned Toad
Look at the picture I posted. Even the bloody stripes are similar
They should fire the artist they used for having a lack of imagination *lol*
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Originally posted by the Bear:
yeah.. it's Frogzilla!
omg! Battleon!
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i like pacman frogs
they'll eat ANYTHING
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Originally posted by elindra:
I think the pix of what they found are just bones :PSo they decided to do an artist impression
And the artist impression looks like the modern day Pacman frog aka Ornate Horned Toad
Look at the picture I posted. Even the bloody stripes are similar
They should fire the artist they used for having a lack of imagination *lol*
actually i think it's going to look like some frog species around whatever colour they colour it unless they decided on rainbow colours or something. -
Originally posted by elindra:
The so-called devil frog of the past
Modern day Pacman frog....Pls lor...it's like the artist drew a pacman frog and made it larger nia
You're right, boss! The artist's impression IS just a larger version of the Pacman frog!
BTW, that froggie looks really cute! Methinks I'll keep a lookout for it when I head to the Queen Victoria Market next!
I don't mind keeping a pet that looks so kawaii! 
And, if like Bear says, it eats anything, all the better! Can share my food with it!
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Hmm... actually, do you think 'will eat anything' includes spicy food?
If I feed it sambal chilli, will it like stick its tongue out? -
Originally posted by Rhonda:
You're right, boss! The artist's impression IS just a larger version of the Pacman frog!
BTW, that froggie looks really cute! Methinks I'll keep a lookout for it when I head to the Queen Victoria Market next!
I don't mind keeping a pet that looks
so kawaii! And, if like Bear says, it eats anything, all the better! Can share my food with it!
you can feed it the spiders that you catch around the house -
Originally posted by Rhonda:
Hmm... actually, do you think 'will eat anything' includes spicy food?
If I feed it sambal chilli, will it
like stick its tongue out? no.. i mean it'll eat anything that moves..
including things that will kill it..
you can feed it scorpions, bugs, spiders, mice, whatever..
it's just like a round cane toad
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Originally posted by the Bear:
no.. i mean it'll eat anything that moves..
including things that will kill it..
you can feed it scorpions, bugs, spiders, mice, whatever..
it's just like a round cane toad
Humph! It HAS to move? Yucks!
I was thinking more of feeding it chicken chunks, boiled fish fillet, chicken skin that I don't wanna eat, etc.
Wrong pet then! Next! -
Originally posted by Rhonda:
Humph! It HAS to move? Yucks!
I was thinking more of feeding it chicken chunks, boiled fish fillet, chicken skin that I don't wanna eat, etc.
Wrong pet then! Next!
dangle it from a string attached to a vibrator? -
Originally posted by the Bear:
Yuuuuuuuuucks!!! *strikes the Pacman frog off her list of desired pets!!!
That's so cruel! I cannot bear to throw live creatures into some cage to watch them being devoured!
Poor mouse!! That is such a horrid, horrid way to die! It should bite the oral cavity of the frog ferociously! Even if it dies, inflict fatal wounds on that horrible frog! 
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Originally posted by hisoka:
dangle it from a string attached to a vibrator? Omigosh... your mind is extremely... thwarted! 
