About two months ago, an amphibian research student worked knee-deep in muddy water at the Southwestern Research Station pond, owned by the American Museum of Natural History.
Suddenly, the girl felt a living "bump" touch her leg, which then swam to the side. The girl thought it was a fish, but then she suspected something and decided to catch this creature.
She managed to grab the slippery creature and was surprised to see that in fact it was … a tadpole. But huge, longer than her palm. It is reported by Living Alongside Wildlife.
When the girl posted a photo of the giant tadpole on social networks, the post became very popular and users quickly found out that it was a bullfrog tadpole (Lithobates catesbeianus). The tadpoles of this large frog are also very large and can reach 15 cm in length, and the frog itself is about 20 cm in length.
But Goliath (as this giant was called) is much longer. He is most likely the largest tadpole found in nature in the world. When Goliath fell into the hands of Dr. Michele Lanana, he placed it in a 25-liter aquarium and reported the find to many renowned amphibian experts.
Soon Lanan received a message from Dr. Hall, who suggested that Goliath was at least 3 years old and that his unusually large size was apparently due to the fact that, due to some anomalies, he could not turn into a frog in time. However, it continues to grow. According to Lanan himself, hormonal imbalances could be to blame.
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If everything is so and if the growth of Goliath is not stopped, soon its respiratory and blood supply systems will not be able to cope with such large sizes and the tadpole may die.
At the moment, Dr. Lanan is studying the rate of nutrition and growth of Goliath by feeding him algae. He also tries to understand if Goliath's behavior is different from that of ordinary tadpoles.
By the way, the name Goliath has nothing to do with the sex of the tadpole. It is not known whether he is male or female.