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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. Etymological considerations... by wattrlz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wouldn't " beelzebufo" mean, " Lord of the Toads" in some unholy fusion of greek and latin? Personally I think that's a cooler name anyway.

  2. Staggering lack of any real info by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I've done a quick Google search and none of the sites have anything more than the rather superficial msnbc link. Even the UCL page doesn't really give much. What it breaks down to is
    • Fosil frog found in Madagascar
    • It's big - about the size of a bowling ball and estimated at 10lb - or around 5Kg for scientists
    • It's not like modern Madagascan frogs but more like South American ones which raises issues about lineage and land masses at the relevant (non specified - and why not - millions of years ago isn't very precise) era
    I guess they're saving the real info up for the PNAS paper.
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  3. Not a toad by PCM2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Based on the article, this is not a toad at all, but a frog. It seems to be only the writer at Scientific American who considers this a toad.

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