Rana (Latonia gigantea)

Frog (Latonia gigantea) Skeleton, approximately 3.7-15.7 million years ago, Bosnia Fossil 32x28x2.5 cm Provenance: market (Italy) Conservation status. Surface: 70% (brittle and friable matrix). Conservation status. Support: 80% (small restorations, consolidation) Latonia gigantea is an extinct species of frog of the genus Latonia, which lived in the Upper Miocene-Lower Pliocene, 15.97 to 3.6 million years ago (Langhiano-Zanclean), in Germany, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Spain, Italy and the Balkans. Although not much is known about the feeding habits of this animal, the only living species of the genus latonia, namely nigriventer, exhibits traits that are primitive and ancestral to the genus latonia and therefore can be used as a comparison to establish the feeding and behavior of extinct species. Latonia nigriventer exhibits a robust cranial structure, as do the forelimbs. This leads to the conclusion that nigriventer is a frog with a durophagous diet, that is, a diet based on shell-bearing organisms, particularly gastropods and terrestrial isopods. The diet of latonia gigantea would thus be less versatile than that of other large frogs: rather than feeding on small vertebrates, it is more credible that this amphibian fed mainly on snails. This would go a long way toward explaining its disappearance in Europe, as during the glacial periods of the Pleistocene, there was a drastic decrease in its prey. The fossil dates to the Neogene, Miocene stage, and was excavated in the Gračanica coal mine in the Bugojno Basin in Bosnia.