Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Behold! Beelzebufo!

A giant frog with South American affinities from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. 2008. S. Evans et al. PNAS, Published online on February 19, 2008.


Illustration by Luci Betti-Nash, courtesy Stony Brook University

An illustration depicts the ancient frog species Beelzebufo, or "devil frog," staring down the largest frog species living in Madagascar today. A pencil is included for scale. Scientists recently identified Beelzebufo from a 70-million-year-old fossil found in Madagascar, and think it may have been the largest frog that ever lived.