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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Beelzebufo 

Do not let this guy near the puppies:

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.

Though from Madagascar, it is closely related to frogs in South America, having in all likelihood traveled there over a land bridge via a much warmer Antarctica during the late Cretaceous.

1 Comments:

By Blogger Christopher Chambers, at Wed Feb 20, 10:58:00 AM:

Is it me or does this thing resemble a spotted Rish Limbaugh?  

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