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Prehistoric predator: Weighing 10lb, the newly-discovered 'frog from hell' would have devoured tiny dinosaurs
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Most frogs prefer a diet of flies, snails and - if they're feeling adventurous - an occasional minnow.
But if you weigh 10lb and resemble a squashed beach ball, it's not surprising if your appetite stretches to something more filling.
According to fossil experts, the Beelzebufo frog, newly-discovered on the island of Madagascar, dined on baby dinosaurs.
Beelzebufo - or "frog from hell" - terrorised prehistoric Earth during the dying days of the dinosaurs more than 70 million years ago.
At 16in long, it was twice the size of the largest frogs alive today and one of the largest ever discovered.
Professor Susan Evans, of University College London, who identified it, said: "This frog is a relative of today's horned toads.
"If it shared their aggressive temperament, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. It might even have eaten hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs."
The discovery of the frog, reported Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, is forcing fossil experts to think again about how the continents used to be connected.
Madagascar split from Africa around 160 million years ago but remained connected to India, South America, Antarctica and Australia.
It was thought that Madagascar and India broke away from the other continents around 120 million years ago, while Madagascar went its own way around 88 million years ago.
However, the giant frog finding suggests that a land bridge between Madagascar and South America remained until late into the dinosaur age.
(Agencies) |
蛙類(lèi)多以飛蠅、蝸牛為食——如果它們想冒冒險(xiǎn)——偶爾也會(huì)吃吃小魚(yú)。
但如果它體重達(dá)10磅，體型像一個(gè)被擠扁的沙灘球，那么胃口大增也并不奇怪。
生物化石專(zhuān)家最近在馬達(dá)加斯加島上新發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種“魔鬼蛙”（Beelzebufo 希臘語(yǔ)：魔鬼）化石，據(jù)介紹，這種蛙類(lèi)主要以恐龍幼崽為食。
據(jù)考證，“魔鬼蛙”是距今七千多萬(wàn)年前恐龍時(shí)代末期（即白堊紀(jì)后期）的恐怖統(tǒng)治者。
這種蛙類(lèi)身長(zhǎng)16英寸，體型為現(xiàn)存體積最大的蛙類(lèi)的兩倍，是迄今發(fā)現(xiàn)的體型最大的蛙類(lèi)之一。
鑒定出“魔鬼蛙”化石的倫敦大學(xué)教授蘇珊?伊萬(wàn)斯說(shuō)：“這種蛙類(lèi)的現(xiàn)代近親是角蟾。”
“如果它與角蟾一樣，生性?xún)疵停敲此鼞?yīng)該是一種專(zhuān)以小動(dòng)物為食的可怕的食肉動(dòng)物。它甚至可能以剛孵出的恐龍或恐龍幼崽為食。”
這個(gè)新發(fā)現(xiàn)于本周二在《國(guó)家自然科學(xué)院院刊》上公布，同時(shí)它也促使生物化石專(zhuān)家重新思考遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)代的大陸板塊究竟是如何連接的。
馬達(dá)加斯加在大約1.6億年前與非洲大陸分離，但與印度、南美洲、南極洲和澳洲仍連接在一起。
據(jù)稱(chēng)，馬達(dá)加斯加和印度板塊在約1.2億年前與其它大陸板塊分離，到了8800萬(wàn)年前，馬達(dá)加斯加又與印度板塊分離。
然而，有關(guān)“巨蛙”的最新發(fā)現(xiàn)表明，馬達(dá)加斯加和南美洲之間曾經(jīng)由一條大陸橋連接，直到恐龍時(shí)代后期消失。
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