Interesting article about horned frog tongues.

[monster]

Ihavent started my own thread in awhile and I was just responding to another one and it made think of this article I came across before that I found interesting and thought other Pacman Frog owners may enjoy it.

If your tongue was as sticky as one South American frog's tongue, you could grab a 400-pound object and pull it inside your mouth, say German researchers who've researched the amphibians' mouths.
South American horned frogs have a muscular tongue that sticks to prey like adhesive tape, but with force so strong it can capture and haul in something weighing three times what the frog weighs, researchers at Christian-Albrechts-Universitat-Kiel in Kiel, Germany, found.
That allows the frogs to capture and consume not only insects but prey as large as rodents, snakes, other frogs, lizards and even small birds.
For the study the researchers set up an experiment intended to measure the amount of force the horned frogs, scientific name Ceratophrys sp., could wield in their tongues.
In the experiment, four frogs were offered a cricket at mealtimes, but there was a catch; the insect was behind a glass microscope slide containing sensors to gauge the impact force and contact area of the frog's tongue.
Most frogs have tongues with around a fifteenth the adhesion power of the feet on a gecko -- a famously sticky creature, researcher Thomas Kleinteich says.


"However, in terms of prey capture, [horned] frog tongue adhesive forces are enormous -- on average, 1.4 times their body weight," he says.
"Translated into human dimensions," he said, "that would be an 80-kilogram [176-pound] person lifting 112 kilograms [246 pounds] just by using his or her tongue," he says. "And they do this within milliseconds" of the tongue making contact.
The sticking technique in a frog tongue is similar to that of pressure-sensitive adhesives such as those used on sticky labels and tapes, the researchers said.
The sticking power of the tongue is determined by how hard it hits its intended prey target and how large the contact area is, they said.
Rather than go out and hunt for prey, horned frogs prefer to lie in wait in a burrow, keeping still and waiting for prospective prey to come close enough to be in range of the amphibian's sticky mouth weapon.
With their massive mouths that can gobble up large prey, horned frogs have garnered the nickname "Pac-Man" frogs.
It makes sense the frogs have evolved tongue adhesion force that exceeds the weight of their prey, Kleinteich says, because any prey stuck to the tongue will naturally attempt to pull away and escape.
He says he plans to continue his research, focusing on different frog species and analyzing their anatomy to determine hunting and feeding patterns.
The article was published in the online, peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports that is a primary research publication from the publishers of Nature.

[jasonm96]

Excellent post Cory. Horned frogs will easily capture other frogs, snakes and even small lizards, therefore D3 supplements plays an important part of their feeding. The cornuta, I believe, has a certain lure to other frogs by flipping it's feet to look like insect to capture other frogs. Indeed horned frogs will eat frogs, small lizards, insects or anything they can fit in their mouths. This helps their dietary needs and especially towards the D3 cycle. Cornuta will feast upon mostly frogs which will supply a good source of D3 from the liver, considering little UVB will reflect to the floor of forest the inhabit, compared to the grassland which Cranwelli will breed and feed.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

Yes, I remember reading that on nat geo's website as well, it's pretty interesting, even though I doubt a person could lift a 400 pound object even with a sticky tongue, the frogs are adapted to it, and our frail and skinny necks could not handle that, I think they said that to just grab attention :/

[monster]

Yes obviously we cant and wouldn't be able to lift 400 pounds and its not to grab attention. Its just the equivalent to make it easier for some people to picture. Just like how ants can carry so much more then their own weight it would be the equivalent to a human being able to pick their car up and carry it to work instead of driving it. Imagine this thing was still hopping around. I wanted to put this picture as my avatar but I cant anymore because of the uploader.

Giant Frog Jumps Continents, May Have Eaten Baby Dinosaurs

Date:February 19, 2008Source:University College LondonSummary:A giant frog fossil from Madagascar dubbed Beelzebufo or "the frog from Hell" has been identified. It would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it's not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs.

FULL STORY

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Artist's impression of prehistoric giant frog, with a modern-day frog and pencil for comparison.
Credit: Courtesy of Stony Brook University


Artist's impression of prehistoric giant frog, with a modern-day frog and pencil for comparison.
Credit: Courtesy of Stony Brook University
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A giant frog fossil from Madagascar dubbed Beelzebufo or 'the frog from Hell' has been identified by scientists from University College London and Stony Brook University, New York. The discovery of the 70 million year-old fossil frog, of a kind once thought unique to South America, lends weight to a new theory that Madagascar, India and South America were linked until late in the Age of Dinosaurs.
The new frog resembles living Horned toads (ceratophryines or 'pac-man frogs') in having a squat body, huge head and wide mouth. With a body length (not counting the legs) of up to 40 cm -- longer than a rugby ball - and a weight of around four kilos (10 pounds), it is more than twice the size of its largest living relatives.
The fossil, published in the journal PNAS, enters the Malagasy history books alongside meat-eating dinosaurs, plant-eating crocodiles and giant snakes, all very different from the present day animals of Madagascar.
Professor Susan Evans of the UCL Department of Cell & Developmental Biology says: "This frog, a relative of today's Horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it's not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs.
"Beelzebufo appears to be a very close relative of a group of South American frogs known as 'ceratophyrines,' or 'pac-man' frogs, because of their immense mouths," said Krause. The ceratophryines are known to camouflage themselves in their surroundings, then ambush predators.
"The finding presents a real puzzle biogeographically, particularly because of the poor fossil record of frogs on southern continents," said Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause, who led the research. "We're asking ourselves, 'What's a 'South American' frog doing half-way around the world, in Madagascar?'"
He said that because frogs "are not adept at dispersal across marine barriers, and since the few fossil frogs that are known from the Late Cretaceous in Africa are unrelated to Beelzebufo, one possibility is that there was a land connection between South America and Madagascar during that period."
Some geoscientists have suggested a lingering physical link between South America and Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous Period -- a link involving Antarctica. Antarctica in the Late Cretaceous was much warmer than it is today.
"The occurrence of this frog in Madagascar and its relatives' existence in South America provides strong evidence that the supercontinent Gondwana 'disassembled' during the latest part of the Cretaceous," said Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.
"Madagascar has a mainly endemic frog fauna whose history has generated intense debate, fuelled by recent phylogenetic studies and the near absence of a fossil record. Our discovery of a frog strikingly different from today's Madagascan frogs, and akin to the Horned toads previously considered endemic to South America, lends weight to the controversial paleobiogeographical model suggesting that Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and South America were linked well into the Late Cretaceous. It also suggests that the initial spread of such beasts began earlier than that proposed by recent estimates."

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Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University College London. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

Again, saw it. I'd love to own one, they'd literally be like a pacman on steroids

[monster]

Instead of having to watch the dogs and cats around the frog so they don't try to eat it, it would be watching the frog around everything else in the house including the baby so it doesn't inhale anything. L.O.L

[jasonm96]

Why the hell is this frog not still alive :'( I heard of it first on david attenborough fantastic frogs (brilliant film) and I was gutted that I couldn't have such an amphibian.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

Yeah, I'm bummed too, the largest frog (Goliath for all the people reading who didn't know) is insanely hard to get your hands on, and are typically illegal exports and sickly WC and rarely fare well in captivity due to their natural environment. Doesn't stop it from being a dream species though!

[monster]

Ya those Goliath bullfrogs can get pretty big, I could just imagine how big of a tank you would need. Im thinking you would have to live somewhere you could keep him in a outside enclosure most the year. They are built more like our common bullfrogs too so you would have to take jumping distance into consideration when building an enclosure also. Would be cool to have but like you said I think these guys are very rare to come by. I seen a video on youtube from LLL Reptile and that blond Jen girl was feeding one a huge rat/mouse with barbeque tongs.

[AKFROG]

Now if only someone could clone " The Frog From Hell" he would have a lot of customers but only rich ones.