Triadobatrachus
| Triadobatrachus | ||||||||||||
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Triadobatrachus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Triassic | ||||||||||||
| 250 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Triadobatrachus | ||||||||||||
| Kuhn , 1962 | ||||||||||||
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Triadobatrachus (from ancient Greek τρίαδα triada 'three' and βάτραχος batrachos ' frog )' is a fossil genus of frog-like amphibians and belongs to the taxon Salientia , in which the recent frogs (anura) are united with some primitive, fossil relatives. Its representatives lived in the Lower Triassic about 250 million years ago and are therefore considered to be the oldest frog-like animals known to science. The only fossil specimen of the T. massinoti type was found in today's Madagascar , which was not an island in the Triassic but part of the supercontinent Pangea .
features
Triadobatrachus massinoti was about ten centimeters long, had a more elongated body than today's frogs and, even as an adult, had a short tail (stub). It had many original anatomical features such as 24 vertebrae, including six caudal vertebrae - modern frogs only have five to nine vertebrae. The skull resembled that of today's frogs and consisted of filigree bone braces that were separated by large openings. The frontal bone and the parietal bone were already fused together like in recent frogs. Large ear openings suggest that Triadobatrachus had good hearing. This “Urfrosch” had no teeth in the lower jaw.
The forearm bones of the radius and ulna as well as the calf and shin bones (tibia) in the lower leg had not yet grown together. The hind legs were elongated, but not yet as strong as modern frogs. He probably swam with his hind legs, which developed into the powerful jumping organs of today's frogs.
