Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
What happened to the dinosaurs
Beelzebufo, the devil frog, to be precise.
Devil frog gives useful advice to his little pal before raiding nest of yummy dinosaur eggs
Credit
From the article linked above:
A team of researchers, led by Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause, has discovered the remains in Madagascar of what may be the largest frog ever to exist.
The 16-inch, 10-pound ancient frog, scientifically named Beelzebufo, or devil frog, links a group of frogs that lived 65 to 70 million years ago with frogs living today in South America . . . .
“Beelzebufo appears to be a very close relative of a group of South American frogs known as ‘ceratophyrines,’ or ‘pac-man’ frogs, because of their immense mouths,” said Krause, whose research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The ceratophryines are known to camouflage themselves in their surroundings, then ambush predators.
. . . . Not only was the frog huge, it was powerful in design, had a protective shield, an extremely wide mouth and powerful jaws. These features made Beelzebufo capable of killing lizards and other small vertebrates, perhaps even hatchling dinosaurs.
Remember Tubby, my pac-man frog? Eater of mice, thumbs, toes, and anything else moving within an inch of his enormous mouth?
That’s Tubby as a juvenile. At the time, he ate goldfish. Big goldfish. He graduated to mice within the year.
You bet I can believe Beelzebufo ate dinosaur hatchlings.
D.
