Category: Amphibians
The Pixie Frog, also known as the African Bullfrog, is the largest species of frog in South Africa. These giants will inhale any prey they can fit in their mouth (even small mammals such as mice). They have very strong hind legs that they use to burrow into the ground, where they can go into a kind of hibernation (called aestivation) during dry summer months. In this state, the Pixie Frog is able to survive by making itself a watertight cocoon that prevents evaporation of body fluids.
Pixie Frog / African Bullfrog Related Links:
An Ample Amphibian
Before reptiles and mammals appeared to challenge amphibian supremacy on the land, amphibians were much larger. But while they have shrunk in size over the last 315 million years, the Chinese Giant Salamander never got the memo: at up to 5.9 feet in length and 66lbs, this amphibian is longer than your dog, and probably weighs at least as much! Compare that to Paedophryne amanuensis, the world’s smallest frog (and smallest vertebrate) who is the size of a house fly! Due to habitat loss, environmental changes, and over-hunting/collecting, the Chinese giant Salamander is critically endangered, though conservation efforts to save it are underway today.
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