Scientists find fossil of 'frog from hell' in Madagascar
Artist's impression of the giant frog
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Tuesday, 19, Feb 2008 12:16
Scientists have discovered the fossil of a giant frog dubbed Beelzebufo - the frog from hell - in Madagascar.
It was thought that this kind of frog was unique to South America, but the discovery of the 70-million-year-old fossil suggests that Madagascar, India and South America were linked until the age of dinosaurs.
At 40cm in length the frog was longer than a rugby ball and weighed about ten pounds.
It was more than twice the size of its living relatives and, like today's Horned toads, had a squat body, huge head and wide mouth.
Scientists from University College London (UCL) and Stony Brook University believe the Beelzebufo lived alongside dinosaurs and had a diet consisting of insects, lizards and possibly baby dinosaurs.
Professor Susan Evans of the UCL department of cell and developmental biology said if Beelzebufo had the same aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' tactics of living Horned toads it would have been a "formidable predator on small animals".
"Madagascar has a mainly endemic frog fauna whose history has generated intense debate, fuelled by recent phylogenetic studies [how species are related to each other during evolution] and the near absence of a fossil record," Professor Evans said.
"Our discovery of a frog strikingly different from today's Madagascan frogs, and akin to the Horned toads previously considered endemic to South America, lends weight to the controversial paleobiogeographical model suggesting that Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and South America were linked well into the Late Cretaceous."
She added: "It also suggests that the initial spread of such beasts began earlier than that proposed by recent estimates."
The fossil discovery is outlined in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).