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Scientists Find 'Devil Toad' Fossil

Posted by samzenpus on from the flies-beware dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A new type of frog the size of a bowling ball, with heavy armor and teeth, that lived among dinosaurs millions of years ago has been discovered. It was intimidating enough that scientists who unearthed its fossils dubbed the beast Beelzebufo, or Devil Toad."

3 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I for one... by MindKata · · Score: 2, Informative

    "I for one etc..."

    Don't worry, its dead ... as in an Ex-Toad ... he's not restin', so you can't wake him up ... This Toad is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e' rests in peace! If they hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'history! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-TOAD!!

    ... I thought this would be better than saying something about "I for one" etc.. ;)

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
  2. Guess it wasn't tagged 'notthebest'? by Xenographic · · Score: 3, Informative
    Why'd they approve this submission, instead of the one with all the details I read in the Firehose yesterday?

    Paleontologist David Krause and his team have discovered the remains of a 'Devil Toad' that was 4.5 kg (10 lbs) in weight and 41 cm (16 in) long. The bones of 'Beelzebufo' -- a combination of the Greek word for devil and the Latin word for toad -- were found in Madagascar and dated to the late Cretaceous period, about 70 million years ago. This is puzzling because Beelzebufo is actually a relative of South American horned frogs (Ceratophrys), rather than the Golaith frogs of West Africa which are almost as big as it. They take this as evidence that Madagascar was still linked to South America via a land bridge in the late Cretaceous, not fully separated as had been thought and speculate that the two might have been linked by a then-warmer Antarctica.
  3. Re:Etymological considerations... by ArieKremen · · Score: 2, Informative

    while "ze" means "this" in Hebrew, the word "zebub" is wrongly transcribed from "zevuv", which means "fly", and is supported by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub.

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    -- Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui