Frogs are one of the amphibians we are most familiar with and are generally only the size of a billiard ball. The world's largest African giant frog is only about 30 centimeters long.
However, in ancient times, there was another frog that was larger than the African giant frog, and that was the legendary devil frog (beelzebufo).
When I heard the name, I felt that this frog was a bit scary. Indeed, this frog is indeed a little larger than the modern frog. At the beginning of this century, scientists once excavated a fossil of a devil frog, which reached a length of 40.2 centimeters. That's not all there is to the frog, which scientists speculate is a little bigger when it's alive. According to the current body structure of the frog, this devil frog was about 43-45 centimeters long before it was born. This length is the distance between the kissing anus, and if its leg is pulled apart to measure, the estimated length will exceed 1 meter.
And, since there aren't many fossil excavations of devil frogs yet, it's reasonable to think that there are even larger devil frogs that haven't been discovered by humans yet, or have been submerged in history.
Based on studies of fossils, paleontologists believe it is an ancient frog that lived 70 million years ago. During this period, dinosaurs were not yet extinct and still ruled the earth. That is to say, this frog once lived on earth with the group of terrifying behemoths in the age of dinosaurs (it seems that the age of dinosaurs was the production of giant creatures).
Not only that, but these giant frogs are likely to be unafraid of dinosaurs at all, and may even prey on dinosaurs – small dinosaurs, of course.
Studies have shown that devil frogs have teeth, which is very helpful for their predation. At the same time, it also implies that they should not simply rely on catching insects for a living, because eating insects does not require teeth.
Therefore, some paleontologists believe that the devil frog is likely to catch dinosaurs to eat.
Some people have deduced that whether it is a beam dragon, a nodule dragon, or even a tyrannosaurus rex, when young, due to its small size and lack of combat effectiveness, it is possible to become the target of the devil frog.
Of course, dinosaurs are likely not their main meal, and scientists believe that the main food of the devil frog is still insects, small reptiles and so on.
For the life habits of the devil frog, scientists believe that it is not the same as that of modern frogs. Devil frogs may not jump around on the leaves of water lilies like modern frogs, but disguise themselves in a semi-arid environment, and then take advantage of the prey's inattention, suddenly attack, killing in one blow.
The devil frog is now extinct, but in South America, its close relatives, the ceratophyrines( because of their large mouths, which are characteristic of the devil frog, live on Earth. However, the devil frog lives in Africa, so how did its close relatives end up in South America?
Scientists believe that 70 million years ago, there may have been a land bridge connection between South America and Africa, or separately connected to Antarctica, which was still very warm at the time, before their common ancestors migrated to South America.