Tailed Frog Jump And Crash Landing

Pacific tailed frog, Ascaphus truei. Roughly 200 million years ago, before the supercontinent Pangaea broke up, a frog evolutionary split occurred. This split resulted in modern frogs and primitive frogs. After the Pangaea divorce, the primitive tailed frog lineage ended up here in the Pacific Northwest and New Zealand. These primitive tailed frogs and their New Zealand cousins held onto a few features that were lost by the fancy modern frogs, including: an extra vertebrae, free ribs, a tail pumping muscle, and a cartilaginous pad in their pelvic girdle. The evolutionary split and ancestral features don't directly explain the tailed frog crash landings, but they do reinforce how primitive of a species they are. Most 'modern' frogs jump and land on their forelimbs and then bring their hind limbs back underneath their body -- ready to jump immediately upon landing. Science has concluded that controlled landings appeared after the evolutionary split -- and these primitive tailed frogs simply missed out. Though this little frog has made the best of its missing skill. In tough guy fashion the tailed frog will jump on its prey then eat it. Learn more here: http://neilfisher.com/blog/a-frog-older-than-earth-day/