A record-breaking, 10-inch-long whopper of a bullfrog tadpole was discovered by a crew of ecologists in a pond in Arizona.
The biggest tadpole ever found—at a whopping 10 inches long—was discovered
by a crew of ecologists in a pond in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. Alina Downer, an intern at the American Museum of Natural
History’s Southwestern Research Station, came across the monster
bullfrog tadpole as her crew was draining a manmade pond as part of a
habitat restoration project for the endangered Chiricahua leopard frog.
As the water level lowered, Downer
and her colleagues were assessing what organisms were left in the muddy
shallows that she likened to “chocolate soup.” Downer says, “I was
fishing around with my hands while walking in the water, and I felt
something large, smooth, and wriggly—which was unexpected, since the
only other fish in the pond were about an inch long.”
As
an avid naturalist, Downer’s first instinct was curiosity. “At first I
thought it was a giant catfish,” she says, grinning at the uncanny
memory. “Whatever it was, I knew I had to grab it.” She herded the slippery creature into shallower water until she could capture it. To her surprise, it turned out to be “an enormous monster of a tadpole”—so
big she had to hold it with two hands…
Not to undervalue at all the coolness of this discovery but I feel like the above quote is a valuable supporting evidence of field biologists intrinsically possessing diminished survival instincts and higher numbers of cool scar stories.
congratulations, you have been forcibly introduced to the African Bullfrog, also
known in pet-owner circles as the Pixie Frog.
look at his little hands!
while they are indeed adorable, the nickname actually derives from the scientific name of the species (pyxicephalus adspersus), and not any positive qualities they possess.
hoo boy they don’t have many of those, lemme tell you
found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pixie Frog lives in wet areas where they eat pretty much anything they can fit into those ginormous mouths. (this includes fish, other frogs, bugs, snakes, lizards, other frogs, rodents, unattentive birds, other frogs, and probably you too if you hold still long enough)
this is a creature born with neither fear nor conscience
and it’s no idle threat either, because Pixie Frogs can grow to 10 inches long, which is well within ‘unreasonably huge’ for an amphibian. also, unlike most frogs, Pixie Frogs have fucking teeth
ALL THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH, MY DEARRRRR
in spite of all of this, Pixie Frogs remain popular pet animals, possibly because they will allow you to pick them up and carry them around like a newborn.
and we can respect that.
she has four of them and they’re named after her grandchildren
just, you know, make sure you count your fingers after you hold one.
This stunning bright red tomato frog (Dyscophus sp) was photographed by Beverly Houwing at a museum in Santa Ana, California. Tomato frogs get their names by being rotund, large, and red.
https://embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
You must be logged in to post a comment.