STL Science Center

STL Science Center

29 August 2017

Volumes of Frogs

The number of papers written about Palaeobatrachus is well more than enough for a book all on its own. There are papers from this year that mention Palaeobatrachus and compare it to other fossil frogs, but these are not the meat and bones of the literature that details the knowledge that we have on Palaeobatrachus. There have been many different descriptions, recently even, of new species of Palaeobatrachus. The most recent descriptions, from last year, are of species known as P. diluvianus and P. eurydices; these species do not appear in any mentions of Palaeobatrachus species lists. New descriptions of fossil frogs, however, are not the only studies that have been published about Palaeobatrachus that are interesting and have made significant impact on the study of these particular frogs and fossil frogs in general. A particular favorite of mine is Roček, et al. 2006 on tadpoles and gigantism in Palaeobatrachus juveniles. A second favorite that I would recommend reading is about the diet of Palaeobatrachus. Wuttke and Poschmann 2010 describes a lagerstätte fossil of an unspecified Palaeobatrachus species with fossilized stomach contents. Those contents were made of small fish that the frog clearly captured and ingested (i.e. fish that were eaten by the frog).

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