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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) |
蛙類多以飛蠅、蝸牛為食——如果它們想冒冒險——偶爾也會吃吃小魚。
但如果它體重達10磅，體型像一個被擠扁的沙灘球，那么胃口大增也并不奇怪。
生物化石專家最近在馬達加斯加島上新發現了一種“魔鬼蛙”（Beelzebufo 希臘語：魔鬼）化石，據介紹，這種蛙類主要以恐龍幼崽為食。
據考證，“魔鬼蛙”是距今七千多萬年前恐龍時代末期（即白堊紀后期）的恐怖統治者。
這種蛙類身長16英寸，體型為現存體積最大的蛙類的兩倍，是迄今發現的體型最大的蛙類之一。
鑒定出“魔鬼蛙”化石的倫敦大學教授蘇珊?伊萬斯說：“這種蛙類的現代近親是角蟾。”
“如果它與角蟾一樣，生性兇猛，那么它應該是一種專以小動物為食的可怕的食肉動物。它甚至可能以剛孵出的恐龍或恐龍幼崽為食。”
這個新發現于本周二在《國家自然科學院院刊》上公布，同時它也促使生物化石專家重新思考遠古時代的大陸板塊究竟是如何連接的。
馬達加斯加在大約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。
據稱，馬達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8800萬年前，馬達加斯加又與印度板塊分離。
然而，有關“巨蛙”的最新發現表明，馬達加斯加和南美洲之間曾經由一條大陸橋連接，直到恐龍時代后期消失。
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（英語點津姍姍編輯）
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