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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the tasty dept.

http://www.popsci.com/beelzebufo-devil-frog-bite-force-dinosaur

Beelzebufo ampinga, so named for the ancient deity often called the "Lord of the Flies," was a devilish frog indeed. The species, which lived on the island of Madagascar around 70 million years ago, was likely the biggest frog that ever hopped about the Earth (National Geographic describes it, delightfully, as "beach-ball-size"). And according to new research on its modern cousins published in Scientific Reports, Beelzebufo ampinga may have had jaws powerful enough to obliterate small dinosaurs.

[...] When you bump up the scale to match the size of Beelzebufo ampinga fossils, the estimated bite force shoots up to 2,200 Newtons—which is comparable to what you see in predators like lions.

"At this bite force, Beelzebufo would have been capable of subduing the small and juvenile dinosaurs that shared its environment," study author Marc Jones, researcher at the University of Adelaide's School of Biological Sciences and honorary researcher at the South Australian Museum, said in a statement.


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:33AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:33AM (#572940) Journal

    Not the answers you were asking for, but I thought it interesting: The frog tongue is a high-speed adhesive [theconversation.com]

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