In the past, ancient frogs might have snacked on dinosaurs.
Popular Science reports that there was once a “giant frog” that walked the earth called Beelzebufo ampinga. Named after an ancient deity referred to as “Lord of the Flies,” the massive amphibian is thought to have lived in Madagascar around 70 million years ago.
The “beach ball-sized” frog has jaws that are “powerful enough to obliterate small dinosaurs.” Scientists first discovered the frog in 2008 and speculated that it might have used its powerful mouth to dine on small vertebrates. Now, they’ve found proof: By calculating the jaw force of one of the frog’s modern relatives, they were able to determine that Beelzebufo ampinga’s bite would have been comparable to the bite of a lion.
While we might all equate frogs with being fly eaters, many species of frog will actually eat anything that can fit in their mouth, including rodents, and perhaps in this ancient case, dinosaurs.
That means they’d definitely be strong enough to chow down on some smaller dinosaurs.
