This King-Size Frog Hopped With Dinosaurs

[n2doc]

By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: February 15, 2010
STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Now appearing in the lobby of Stony Brook University Medical Center: a frog that lived in the era of the dinosaurs and is as big as a beach ball. Scientists believe it to be the largest frog ever.


The immense frog is part of a permanent exhibition that also features reconstructions of a vegetarian pug-nosed crocodile and a small meat-eating dinosaur.

“This was undoubtedly the heaviest frog ever, we estimate about 10 pounds,” said David Krause, the Stony Brook University paleontologist who unearthed the fossils of the frog and the other creatures in Madagascar. “It probably ate any available prey — lizards and snakes and mammals. It was large enough to maybe even eat hatchling dinosaurs.”

The frog’s scientific name is Beelzebufo ampinga, which means “armored devil toad.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/science/16frog.html

[rocktivity]

1. That sounds like a line from a REALLY bad spy movie!

:rofl:
rocktivity

[NoodleyAppendage]

2. Why put a frog fossil and others in a medical center? N/t

WTF

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Picture that on a restaurant plate....those are frogs legs we could believe in!

[Bobbieo]

4. Is he related to the Colorado River Toad? Another poisonous bufo -

I used to see them in Tucson every summer - they get pretty big 8 to 10 inches or more - but I have lived near the Colorado River now for 30 years and have never seen one here.

[malakai2]

5. I picture the Hypnotoad

nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Yeah, pretty much:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7251666.stm

http://advanced-garden.com.nyud.net:8080/wp2/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/hypnotoad.png

I love the genus name 'Beelzebufo'!

[On the Road]

7. Couple of More Artist's Conceptions:

[jmowreader]

8. That top picture looks a little like Jabba the Hutt

[eppur_se_muova]

9. More deceptive journalism -- it's only a *reconstruction* of a 10-lb frog!

Why lead us on like that? :evilgrin:

(pssst ... BTW ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=38314&mesg_id=38314 )