Giant frog fossil

Feb 19 2008

A 70 million-year-old fossil of a giant frog which would have been the size of a "slightly squashed beach-ball" has been unearthed in Madagascar, scientists have said.

The frog, dubbed Beelzebufo or the ’frog from hell’, resembles living horned toads - with a squat body, huge head and wide mouth - which were once believed to have been unique to South America.

The discovery adds weight to a controversial theory that the island was linked to India and South America until late into the age of the dinosaurs, the researchers writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) said.