Does 70 million yearsisland Madagascar It was home to a giant frog. Possibly the largest in history. Logically, there were no people on Earth at the time to christen it, so it was named after the fossils: Velzebufo ampingThere were no humans, but there were dinosaurs. In fact, it is believed that they may have been part of their diet.
If you imagine a giant frog tearing apart Tyrannosaurus rexyou should lower your expectations a little. This amphibian was about 41 centimeters in length and weighed about 4.5 kg. One blow from the king of dinosaurs would have been enough to put an end to it. But it is possible that it fed on infants or young dinosaurs.
Scientists came to this conclusion after analyzing the bite of one of its closest living relatives: effort. If you extrapolate this to a much larger animal, the size of a giant frog, they could eat small dinosaurs without any problem. Perhaps not as scary as the image that initially comes to mind, but still surprising.
The giant frog that terrified dinosaurs… well, some of them
This giant frog was first described in 2008, more than a decade after its first fossil was found. Scientists who analyzed it named it Velzebufo amping for Latin Beelzebubwhat does the devil mean and snortwhat does toad mean. Ampingaon the other hand, it means “armored” and refers to the bone shield that sits on your head.
Logically, the first thing that caught our attention was the size of this amphibian. Analysis of its fossils showed that it must have been about 40 centimeters long, much longer than any living frog or toad. What’s more, it may have had flexible mouthwhich allowed him to eat large animals.
On the other hand, fossil evidence has shown that their closest living relatives are amphibians of the genus Ceratophryscommonly known as efforts. They are carnivorous animals with fangs and are very aggressive. Completely different from the frogs we are used to. They feed on small animals such as rodents or birds, and in extreme cases their size does not exceed 20 centimeters. What could not a giant frog, twice as long as the largest frog, eat?
To answer this question, another group of scientists conducted a simple study. They took a group of frogs of the species Ceratophrys cranvelli and made them bite the block to assess the bite force. This was enough to calculate that, given Beelzebufo’s size, his prey could be of considerable size.
Some examples
It is impossible to know what dinosaurs were on the menu of this giant frog. However, if we look at the animals that lived in Madagascar around the same time, we find basically two candidates. On the one hand, we have Rahonavis, a small insectivorous theropod. 40 centimeters long and 15 centimeters high.. And on the other hand, although a little larger, we find Masiakasaurus. This one was larger, about 2 meters long and 70 centimeters high.However, scientists do not rule out that their babies could become easy prey for Velzebufo.
The same goes for baby crocodiles or lizards. According to research, there must have been many animals that were afraid of this giant frog.
A mystery to be solved
Fossils of this giant frog have only been found on Madagascar, an island that is known to have separated from Africa around 160 million years when is the supercontinent Gondwana. It later separated from India and became the island it is today 88 million years ago. However, Beelzebufo fossils are about 75 million years old. Their living descendants, the Esquerzo, live in South America, which is an intriguing fact. How did they get there? Were there other species of giant frogs in other parts of the world? Or was South America somehow connected to Madagascar?
This giant frog is curious for many reasons, including how much it can tell us about our planet. It’s fascinating.
Source: Hiper Textual
