The giant ancient frog could eat dinosaurs – scientists

2017-09-23 12:31

The giant ancient frog could eat dinosaurs – scientists
The frog lived on Earth 70 million years ago.

Scientists said that the ancient giant frogs have strong enough jaws to eat small dinosaurs, reports ScienceAlert, reports Rus.Media.

Beelzebufo ampinga — the largest frog, who lived ever on Earth. Individuals of this species lived in Madagascar 70-65 million years ago. However, they were similar to the modern horned frogs that have helped scientists make amazing discovery.

The horned frogs are distinguished by their large mouths. Observation allowed scientists to measure the compression force of the jaws of the ancient frogs. The researchers used a force sensor, made of two plates covered with leather. When the toad biting the plate, they accurately measured the force of its jaws.

Horned frog head with a diameter of 4.5 cm has a bite force of 30 Newtons (approximately three kilograms). This allows it to clamp in the jaws the prey is caught with a sticky tongue, and never let her go. According to scientists, the horned frogs unlike most other frogs have powerful jaws and feed on animals the same size as they are, frogs, snakes and rodents.

The researchers then studied the larger horned frogs that live in South America and have a mouth about the size of 10 centimeters: the force of contraction of their jaws made up of 500 Newtons (approximately 50 kilograms).

This method of scaling, the binding force of the bite and size of the torso and the head, worked in the case of other animals, including fish, reptiles and rodents. Thus, researchers have applied it to Beelzebufo ampinga. The mouth of the ancient frogs amounted to approximately 15.4 centimeters wide, and therefore the compression force of the jaws — 2 200 Newtons (about 224 pounds). According to scientists, this allowed giant extinct frogs to eat, for example, a small dinosaur.

Earlier it was reported that scientists have discovered the remains of a unique Arctic dinosaur, which was named Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, which means “ancient animal Colville river”. In length this dinosaur reached about 7.5 m. During the Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis the Arctic were covered in coniferous forests, mean annual temperature was 7 degrees Celsius.