Something You Wouldn't Want To Step On...

A group of scientists from University College London and Stony Brook University, New York, have made a recent discovery in Madagascar. They have managed to unearth a fossil of what has been dubbed 'the frog from Hell'. This 70 million year-old fossil frog, once thought to be unique to South America, now suggests that Madagascar, India, and South America may have been linked during the time of dinosaurs.

The frog is similar to now living Horned Toads (ceratophryines) as it has a squat body, huge head and wide mouth. Not including legs, its body length was up to 40 cm, totaling to a weight of around 10 pounds, making it roughly twice the size of its largest living relatives.

Professor Susan Evans of the UCL Department of Cell & Developmental Biology says: "This frog, a relative of today's Horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it's not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs."