Boing Boing Frogs
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 5th, 2007
Nyctibatrachus minimus, the tiny nightfrog of India.
Conraua goliath, the goliath frog of West Africa.
We shall pick up an existence by its frogs. Wise men have tried other ways. They have tried to understand our state of being, by grasping at its stars, or its arts, or its economics. But, if there is an underlying oneness of all things, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle, beginning anywhere.Charles Fort, Lo!
After I posted my blog (“Incredibly Tiny Frog Discovered”) on the new Indian species here, cryptobuddy David Pescovitz posted a notice about it over at Boing Boing (“Tiny new frog discovered”).
Intriguingly, the first comment maker at Boing Boing wrote: “An interesting contrast would be to put this picture side-by-side with a snap of the world’s largest frog sitting on a manhole cover.”
I could not find any accommodating photos of the world’s largest frog, the goliath frog of West Africa, on sewer lids. But I did locate some interesting ones, nevertheless (above and below).
It seems a few photographers have folks holding the frogs near the camera, to give an illusion of an even bigger frog.
If you ask me, a frog that is 15 inches long and weighs 7 pounds, looking almost as big as a deer fawn doesn’t need any help looking larger.
Indeed, we shall pick up an existence by its frogs.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I can remember there was a controversy about those african frogs down here at the Calaveras Jumping Frog Jubilee (the same one that Mark Twain wrote about). They hold this every year as part of the county fair. A man brought a couple of those frogs in and of course everyone else called foul. After all those things can, in 1 jump, make the stand record of 3 leaps. They finally had to make the ruling (yes, a ruling on jumping frogs) that the frogs had to be native to California (at least)–native to Calaveras County would be better. If I recall, some were actually more concerned that his frogs would get free and start eating the native variety.
There’s a frog loose in your yard? I’ll help you catch it. Where is the little fella? Here little froggie froggie… AAAAHHHHHH! Seriously, though, that is an amazing contrast and I think it was a good idea to show the enormous size differences that can exist between two similar species here. It is endlessly fascinating for me how even related creatures can evolve to have such dramatic physiological differences in response to factors of their environment.
Well put, MM. Loren, I love the Fort quote.
And, lest we forget, frogs have permeable skins and can serve as an ecological “canary in the coal mine”.
‘We shall pick up an existence by its frogs…’ Indeed.
The goliaths are my favorite big amphibians, second only to the Asian varieties of cryptobranchids.