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| - A photograph of a giant, green-and-yellow tadpole longer than a human hand turned up in an X post on Feb. 12, 2025. At the time of this reporting, the post had received more than 296,000 views.
At the Southwestern Research Station there was an initiative to remove invasive bull frogs from ponds. During the removal process they found a tadpole of gigantic proportions. BEHOLD pic.twitter.com/WxGcLuCaiI
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 13, 2025
People have been sharing the photograph on social media platforms, including Reddit and Facebook, for years, as well as by online publications like the New York Post and Live Science.
Herpetologist Earyn McGee, a self-described "lizard lassoer," originally shared the photo on X on June 13, 2018. McGee described the tadpole as "not the norm" and an "outlier with some sort of hormonal imbalance."
Up here at the Southwestern Research Station there is an initiative to remove invasive bull frogs from ponds. During the removal process they found a tadpole of gigantic proportions. BEHOLD #SciComm #desert #skyisland #frogs #arizona #BLACKandSTEM #womeninStem #UAResearch pic.twitter.com/e6AgaRwrhb
— Dr. Earyn McGee, Lizard lassoer 🦎 (@Afro_Herper) June 14, 2018
McGee served as a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, according to an online profile published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In a subsequent post, McGee compared the size of the tadpole to that of a banana.
I know a lot of you were looking for updates and I can't tell you exactly how big this guy is because the researchers haven't published on it yet. A rough estimate would be the size of a medium banana. He is still alive and growing. His name is Goliath 😊 @swrsamnh pic.twitter.com/gWecsJwzMn
— Dr. Earyn McGee, Lizard lassoer 🦎 (@Afro_Herper) June 14, 2018
Snopes contacted McGee for further information about the tadpole's condition and will update this article if we learn more.
McGee shared a video and update of the aptly named "Goliath" tadpole on May 26, 2020, writing that the tadpole died in 2019 for unknown reasons. Researchers at the time intended to continue studying the tadpole and planned to publish their findings in the following years, wrote McGee.
Hey y'all! I got the ok to share an update about Goliath the #BigAssTadpole. Unfortunately it died last year. Researchers at @swrsamnh preserved it to figure out why it stayed a tadpole it's whole life, it's sex, and other morphological studies. pic.twitter.com/EtAtiFZg7d
— Dr. Earyn McGee, Lizard lassoer 🦎 (@Afro_Herper) May 26, 2020
The science and technology publication American Scientist wrote about the "record-breaking, 10-inch-long whopper of a bullfrog tadpole" in 2018, noting that it was discovered by a "a crew of ecologists in a pond in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona."
The crew was working at Arizona's Southwestern Research Station, a field station under the direction of the Science Department of the American Museum of Natural History.
Alina Downer, an intern at the time, reportedly found the bullfrog tadpole while her crew was draining a manmade pond during a habitat restoration project. The "gigantic pollywog" measured 10.1 inches long, beating the previous species record by 2.5 inches, according to American Scientist, which described the amphibian as being:
… larger in circumference than a can of soda. Its head is around the size of a big adult bullfrog, but is round and blunt-faced like a tadpole, with fishy tadpole lips rather than a frog mouth.
How old the tadpole was or what caused its abnormal growth was unknown, though an imbalance of hormones is suspected of causing its comparatively colossal size.
Snopes contacted the Southwest Research Station for further information about whether researchers had characterized the tadpole and described its condition. We will update this article if a response is received.
The American Museum of Natural History writes that American bullfrog tadpoles, scientific name Rana catesbeiana, more typically reach 4 to 6 inches in length and can take up to two years to metamorphose into a frog.
Most frogs and other amphibians hatch as fish-like larvae called tadpoles, or "pollywogs." Tadpoles exist to eat and grow. They eventually transform into froglets, a process called metamorphosis. These soft globs of flesh provide tasty morsels for snakes, fish, birds, and even other frogs. The tadpole stage can last for days or years, depending on the species and the weather.
Arizona Game and Fish (AGF) considers the bullfrog an invasive aquatic animal species introduced to the western U.S. in the early 1900s for "sport, food, and inadvertently during fish stockings." AGF writes:
Bullfrogs reproduce prolifically, laying up to 20,000 eggs in a single clutch and are capable of spreading without human intervention. Bullfrogs compete with and often prey upon many native aquatic species including fish, turtles, snakes, and a variety of invertebrates. Of particular concern are the detrimental effects that bullfrogs have on the federally-listed Chiricahua leopard frog and Mexican garter snake. In addition to preying on or competing with these species, bullfrogs may harbor deadly diseases such as chytridiomycosis that can infect native amphibians (Garner et al. 2007). Efforts to remove bullfrogs from habitats where Chiricahua leopard frogs occur or will be introduced is an AZGFD management strategy that has been effective in several large landscapes in southeastern Arizona.
The Natural Resources Defense Council notes that adult bullfrogs can reach up to 8 inches in length – twice the size of the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog, the latter of which can wind up as dinner for bullfrogs.
Snopes has looked into other online claims involving frogs, including whether one Alaskan species can survive for weeks after freezing in winter and another said to have eyes inside their mouths.
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