The fossilized remains of an extinct frog the size of a slightly squashed beachball has been pieced together like a giant jigsaw puzzle from bone fragments discovered in Madagascar. This discovery helps to establish that Madagascar and South America were still connected in the Late Cretaceous as well.

The 16" long (not counting the legs), 10lb. frog has been given the name "Beelzebufo," which means "Devil Frog," lived approximately 65-70 mya and is related to the rotund frogs living today in South America known as ceratopyrines, "sometimes called "pac-man frogs" due to their large mouths. Like modern ceratopyrines, the giant Beelzebufo was a predator, though if whether or not it utilized camouflage and hunted from ambush like its descendants today do, is speculative. The size and robustness of Beelzebufo's bones indicate that it was not only one of the largest frogs ever (if not the largest frog), but it was probably also the biggest. Today, the largest frog known is the Goliath Frog from West Africa, which grows to a foot in length and weighs a bit over 7lbs, whereas the largest frog now in Madagascar is only 4" long. Add to its size and powerful build the fact that it also possessed an armored shield resembling those seen on horned toads and this means that Beelzebufo's gaping mouth could have been capable of killing lizards and other small vertebrates, and even hatchling dinosaurs as well.

The reason why the discovery of Beelzebufo may provide direct evidence for a land connection during the Late Cretaceous between Madagascar, India and South America is that frogs aren't very good at crossing marine barriers. Such a connection provides a solution to this biogeographic mystery and some think that the link may have been made by Antarctica, which was considerably warmer during the time in question. Thus it appears that the supercontinent Gondwana still hadn't finished breaking apart by the end of the Cretaceous.

Further reading can be found here:

Scientists Discover "Giant Fossil Frog from Hell" - US
National Science Foundation (NSF)

'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed

Giant Frog Jumps Continents, New Fossil Find Shows
Giant "Frog From Hell" Fossil Found in Madagascar

Originally posted by rogue06
<SNIP>
...The size and robustness of Beelzebufo's bones indicate that it was not only one of the largest frogs ever (if not the largest frog), but it was probably also the biggest.
</SNIP>

Should have said "heaviest" rather than "biggest" there at the end.

neat stuff, thanks

It appears that up to 4 new species and 2 new genera of extinct seabirds dating from the end of the Cretaceous (65 mya) have been uncovered by a storm on a rocky platform along an isolated stretch of Maunganui Beach in the Chatham Islands, approximately 500 miles east of Christchurch, New Zealand. Other remains from the same blocks of fossil-laden sandstone the birds were discovered in indicates that they had co-existed with marine and terrestrial dinosaurs. Previously, the oldest birds from New Zealand were some early penguin-like fossils dating from around 55 mya.

Researchers are refusing to say anything further about the bird's identities until after they've been formally described in the scientific literature except to add that they seem to resemble modern birds known as cormorants and to give some basic descriptions. "They look very tall and slender," excavation leader Jeffrey Stilwell of Melbourne's Monash University reported. "We have one little guy who was probably no more than 30 centimeters [12 inches] high." The tallest was a little over a meter tall. The fossils have been sent to to Sylvia Hope, a bird-fossil expert with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, for further identification.


More can be found here:

Dino-Era Seabird Fossils Found in New Zealand

Norwegian researchers have discovered a 150 myo aquatic Jurassic graveyard containing the fossilized remains of over 30 plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs at a site in the archipelago of Svalbard, on the island of Spitsbergen, which is about 1300km from the North Pole. But what is getting most of the attention is the remains of a new species of pliosaur, dubbed "the Monster," that is 5 meters longer than the previous record holder from Australia, though a 2002 discovery in Mexico is claimed to be 65' long it has yet to be verified. "The Monster" is described as having vertebrae the size of dinner plates and possessing 60 jagged teeth the size of cucumbers set in a huge mouth (lower jaw is approximately 10' or 3 meters long). The 50' or 15 meter long reptile (about the size of a Whale Shark) was the T rex of the seas, possessing front flippers almost 10' long and was probably the top marine predator of their time, preying upon squid-like animals, fish and other marine reptiles. Pliosaurs were a type of plesiosaur with a short neck and massive skull and while maybe not the largest marine predator ever, they may have been the fiercest as evidenced by its teeth. The remains appear to be relatively intact, meaning that this may not only the largest plesiosaur ever found, it may also be the most complete.

Palaeontologist and Assistant Professor Joern Hurum of Oslo's Natural History Museum, who led the expedition to dig up the fossil, doesn't think that the reptiles died at the same time in some Jurassic-era cataclysm, but instead died over thousands of years in the same area to become preserved in what was apparently a deep layer of black mud on the seabed. During this time, the area where the fossils were discovered was underwater and several thousand kilometers further south, around the latitude of Oslo.

More can be found here:

Sea monster had teeth like cucumbers

Giant "Sea Monster" Fossil Discovered in Arctic

Fossil reveals a Monster that terrorised the seas

Fossil of 50-ft. marine reptile discovered

Originally posted by rogue06

Norwegian researchers have discovered a 150 myo aquatic Jurassic graveyard containing the fossilized remains of over 30 plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs at a site in the archipelago of Svalbard, on the island of Spitsbergen, which is about 1300km from the North Pole. But what is getting most of the attention is the remains of a new species of pliosaur, dubbed "the Monster," that is 5 meters longer than the previous record holder from Australia, though a 2002 discovery in Mexico is claimed to be 65' long it has yet to be verified. "The Monster" is described as having vertebrae the size of dinner plates and possessing 60 jagged teeth the size of cucumbers set in a huge mouth (lower jaw is approximately 10' or 3 meters long). The 50' or 15 meter long reptile (about the size of a Whale Shark) was the T rex of the seas, possessing front flippers almost 10' long and was probably the top marine predator of their time, preying upon squid-like animals, fish and other marine reptiles. Pliosaurs were a type of plesiosaur with a short neck and massive skull and while maybe not the largest marine predator ever, they may have been the fiercest as evidenced by its teeth. The remains appear to be relatively intact, meaning that this may not only the largest plesiosaur ever found, it may also be the most complete.

Palaeontologist and Assistant Professor Joern Hurum of Oslo's Natural History Museum, who led the expedition to dig up the fossil, doesn't think that the reptiles died at the same time in some Jurassic-era cataclysm, but instead died over thousands of years in the same area to become preserved in what was apparently a deep layer of black mud on the seabed. During this time, the area where the fossils were discovered was underwater and several thousand kilometers further south, around the latitude of Oslo.

More can be found here:

Sea monster had teeth like cucumbers

Giant "Sea Monster" Fossil Discovered in Arctic

Fossil reveals a Monster that terrorised the seas

Fossil of 50-ft. marine reptile discovered

Interesting finds -- especially from a Scandinavian pov

However, notice the headlines, the three first mentioning a "(Sea) Monster", and there's that picture (attached below) of the pliosaur with a mouth so big that a small car could fit into it.

And not only that, but also this:

timesonline

It has been suggested that the Loch Ness Monster could be a plesiosaur. Sceptics, however, have pointed out that the loch is 10,000 years old, whereas plesiosaurs are thought to have died out 65 million years ago.

Source

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© source where applicable

But what if I'm a YEC? Then I would be perfectly happy with plesiosaurs or any other -saurs living in a 10,000 years old lake.

Why do they have to bring up this kind of things? Don't we have the Discovery Channel for that?


- FreezBee

Originally posted by FreezBee

Interesting finds -- especially from a Scandinavian pov

However, notice the headlines, the three first mentioning a "(Sea) Monster", and there's that picture (attached below) of the pliosaur with a mouth so big that a small car could fit into it.

And not only that, but also this:

timesonline

It has been suggested that the Loch Ness Monster could be a plesiosaur. Sceptics, however, have pointed out that the loch is 10,000 years old, whereas plesiosaurs are thought to have died out 65 million years ago.

Source

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© source where applicable

But what if I'm a YEC? Then I would be perfectly happy with plesiosaurs or any other -saurs living in a 10,000 years old lake.

Why do they have to bring up this kind of things? Don't we have the Discovery Channel for that?


- FreezBee

With a mouth so big that a small car could fit into it is pretty much how it was described as evidenced by this from the first article linked to:

The fossil of a 15 metre long sea monster found in Arctic Norway is the biggest of its kind known to science with dagger-like teeth in a mouth large enough to bite a small car, researchers say.

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© source where applicable

As for the "Nessie" comments... I really wish they had abstained from such comparisons. It's sort of like bringing up yetis and Bigfoot when discussing Australopithecus ("Lucy").

For a couple of slightly less sensational images of the "monster" pliosaur, check out the accompanying chart comparing it to the next largest pliosaur known in this article. And then there is this diagram of the skull next a man for additional perspective.

The teeth of a tiny primate, which probably weighed but a single ounce and could easily fit in the palm of your hand, was recently discovered on the Gulf Coast Plain of Mississippi and appears to be the earliest primate discovered in North America, dating from 55 mya. The creature, named Teilhardina magnoliana, was a very primitive relative of the wide-eyed, tree-dwelling tarsiers, primates which still live in southeast Asia today. This discovery suggests that Teilhardina migrated to North America across the Bering land bridge from Asia and raises the possibility that primates had appeared in North America before their close relatives showed up in Europe – a position that contradicts earlier studies. Teilhardina fossil remains have been unearthed in Asia, Europe and North America dating from this time and led to speculation about how they spread. Previous research suggested that North America was the last place they migrated to, having come from a western direction through Europe, based on the fact that Teilhardina fossils found in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin appear to be considerably less primitive than those discovered in either China and Belgium. The new discovery in Mississippi reverses the direction of this global migration since the teeth seem to have fewer modern features than those found elsewhere.

The discoverer of the fossils, Christopher Beard, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History claims that not only are the Mississippi Teilhardina fossils more anatomically primitive than the ones so far found in Europe, but they are also found in slightly earlier deposits. It looks like they were uncovered in sediment that is below the line that marks a drastic drop in worldwide sea levels whereas the Belgian fossils were discovered slightly above this line. Hence, the sea level was still falling when the Mississippian Teilhardina fossils were deposited and had already fallen by the time the European Teilhardina fossils were deposited.

But the discovery and the conclusions are still controversial because the ages haven’t been verified due to a lack of a clearly appropriate carbon isotope signature, and this is sort of considered the gold standard for dating fossils from this time. Approximately 55.8 mya there was a large release of carbon from what had previously been frozen undersea methane deposits that is described as being poor in one specific isotope that has been used as a marker to date fossils from this time. Unfortunately, the Mississippi site shows no clear line from this event, which makes dating the teeth this way nearly impossible. The lack of this carbon isotope data means that the migratory paths used by Teilhardina are still not known with any certainty. But as Beard notes, either route is impressive for such a tiny animal to have taken.

Further reading can be found here:

Oldest Primate Fossil in North America Discovered
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...n-primate.html

How primates crossed continents
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/0803....2008.637.html

Scientists Unearth Fossils of 1-Ounce Primate in Mississippi
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...ists-unea.html

One-Ounce Mississippian of 55.8 Million Years Ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/sc...ml?ref=science

Pint-sized primates were first in North America
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23455662/

A long trek for ancient mini monkeys
http://www.boston.com/news/science/a...cient_mini_mon
keys/

Carnegie Museum's monkey fossils ignite controversy
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_555337.html

With all the attention focused on the discovery of Onychonycteris, another important discovery of fossilized bat remains is getting somewhat ignored. Recently a team of paleontologists uncovered six new bat species of bat from approximately 35 mya in the El Fayum district of Egypt (50 miles southwest of Cairo). Over the course of 25 years 33 specimens were discovered and collected including one of the largest fossil bats ever found which should help provide new information on bat evolution in area where bat fossils have previously consisted of fragmentary remains. All the bats appear to be more primitive forms of modern bats and had the ability to echolocate.

Read more here:

Giant fossil bats out of Africa
Six New Prehistoric Bat Species Discovered in Egypt

The tracks from half a dozen different species of dinosaur have been found in an area popular with ATV riders about 5 miles southwest of Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Kane County, in southern Utah. A paleontologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Alan Titus remarked that the find is special primarily due to the high concentration of tracks as well as their accessibility. The find include tracks of a sharp-toothed and clawed carnivore, a three-toed crocodile, and a large plant-eating species. The region is well known for dinosaur fossils and tracks from the Jurassic when the terrain was a harsh desert, but these tracks appear to be at least 100 million older than the fossils being extracted in the neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The interesting thing is that, as Mark Lockley, head of the Dinosaur Tracks Museum at the University of Colorado at Denver pointed out, “You rarely find herbivores in a desert.” I imagine the same could be said for crocodiles. I think this indicates that there must have been a river or other body of water in the vicinity.

More can be found HERE

Originally posted by rogue06

The tracks from half a dozen different species of dinosaur have been found in an area popular with ATV riders about 5 miles southwest of Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Kane County, in southern Utah. A paleontologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Alan Titus remarked that the find is special primarily due to the high concentration of tracks as well as their accessibility. The find include tracks of a sharp-toothed and clawed carnivore, a three-toed crocodile, and a large plant-eating species. The region is well known for dinosaur fossils and tracks from the Jurassic when the terrain was a harsh desert, but these tracks appear to be at least 100 million older than the fossils being extracted in the neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The interesting thing is that, as Mark Lockley, head of the Dinosaur Tracks Museum at the University of Colorado at Denver pointed out, “You rarely find herbivores in a desert.” I imagine the same could be said for crocodiles. I think this indicates that there must have been a river or other body of water in the vicinity.

More can be found HERE

From the linked article:

above link

Southern Utah is known for dinosaur fossils and tracks from the Jurassic period. These animals lived about 190 million years ago in a harsh desert that got intermittent deluges.

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© source where applicable

With intermittent deluges the desert would have at least plenty of annuals, so if the herbivores could feed on those, they might simply have been there for a season.


- FreezBee

The discovery of a 25 myo rhinoceros bone has demonstrated that, contrary to the opinion of most geologists, Anatolia (most of modern Turkey) wasn’t geographically isolated during that time (the Oligocene). Previously, it was thought that Anatolia was an archipelago, surrounded by water, 25 mya. The bone fragment from the radius (forearm) is over 3’ long and was unearthed by a French and Turkish team in 2002 in region of ÇankiriÇorum, near the village of Gozukizilli (Central Turkey), and has been identified as coming from the Paraceratherium genus. What the bone find demonstrates is that there were land bridges between Europe and Asia for if Anatolia was surrounded by water during this period it would be extremely unlikely that these huge animals would ever had made it to Anatolian soil. Still, I’ve seen films of elephants swimming relatively long distances so I don’t think it would therefore be impossible. Still, since the remains of other mammals, namely ruminants and rodents have also been found in the deposit, that display a close affinity with the fauna of Asia and Europe at that time, this bolsters the claim that Anatolia was indeed connected to the mainland rather than being isolated.

You can read more here:

Fossilized Giant Rhino Bone Questions Isolation Of Anatolia, 25 Million Years Ago

Rhino bones build ancient 'bridges' in Anatolia

A cross between a pig and a camel, evolution successfully predicted it would love Oreos!

Well, okay, not exactly... It seems they didn't actually have Oreos in Ten Million B.C., so it had to make do with plants instead:

10 million-year-old fossil found in New Mexico
Plant-eating oreodont resembled a cross between a pig and a camel

Looks like they found actual Hobbits:

Ancient Bones of Small Humans Discovered in Palau

Although they have some primitive characteristics, those people were basically Homo S. Sapiens, except they were 3 to 4 feet tall. Dunno about hairy feet, though.

Originally posted by Steviepinhead

A cross between a pig and a camel, evolution successfully predicted it would love Oreos!

Well, okay, not exactly... It seems they didn't actually have Oreos in Ten Million B.C., so it had to make do with plants instead:

Yes, “Oreodont,” not “Oreo”

Unfortunately it seems your link doesn’t work, so here is another: Geologist Spots Oreodont Fossil in N.M.

Oreodonts have never been found in this area before (though they have been found in New Mexico before this). Apparently this find consists of a skull, both jaws, and part of the skeleton of the 10 myo creature, which was a cud-chewing plant-eater approximately the size of a modern sheep (though some grew much larger) and resembled a cross between a pig and a camel possessing large heads with a small face, small but stout trunks, and rather short legs ending at four-toed hooves. Here is a picture of a skeleton of an oreodont

Here is another source for the story: 10 Million Year-Old Oreodont Discovered In New Mexico