Some things never change

I just saw this National Geographic article from back in March, and my first thought was, "A hundred million years, and things haven't changed a bit."

The title? Ancient Flying Reptiles Likely Had Sex As Youths.

Not the biggest...

but the prettiest.It's a Carrikeri harlequin frog, and it has just been rediscovered after 14 years. The rest of the National Geographic article is more depressing.

Chinese giant salamander

National Geographic photo.

I may not have much of an imagination, but I can imagine this crawling out of a swamp 160 million years ago. It is considered a living fossil, gets up to 5 feet long, and of course it is critically endangered. It happens to be a delicacy. Why am I not surprised?

Click the box below to see one in motion.

Chinese giant salamander moving along stream

© BBC Natural History Unit

National Geographic has a 2003 story about finding the fossils of its ancestors.

I've been fascinated with "living fossils" ever since I was a kid (many many moons ago) and read about the 1938 discovery of the Coelacanth. I still act like a kid if I see one. I have squealed with delight and run over to gaze with reverent awe at pickled coelacanth specimens in Natural History Museums in both San Francisco and London.

More fascinating amphibian photos on the National Geographic website can be found here.