"Frog from Hell" Changes Dino Era World View

February 19, 2008

A frog that grew to about the size of a basketball was just discovered in Madagascar by University College London and Stony Brook University researchers. Dubbed Beelzebufo, meaning "the frog from Hell," the ancient amphibian lived 70 million years ago. (illustration by Luci Betti-Nash)

Since the frog previously was thought to only have lived in South America, researchers now believe Madagascar, India and South America were all once connected, at least until late in the Dinosaur Age. UCL's Susan Evans, who helped to find the froggy fossil, said that in life, it would have resembled "a slightly squashed beach ball with short legs and a big mouth." Although it mostly consumed insects and small vertebrates, like lizards, there's a chance it munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs too.