Pacman Frog

🌍 Overview

The ornate horned frog - nicknamed the Pacman frog for its enormous, round, gaping mouth - is native to the grasslands and rainforests of South America. They are ambush predators that bury themselves in soil or leaf litter and wait, motionless, for prey to enter range of their enormous mouth. Despite their sluggish lifestyle, Pacman frogs will attempt to consume prey nearly as large as themselves - including other frogs, rodents, and small snakes.

📋 Quick Facts

📜 History

The species entered science through Darwin's voyage. Thomas Bell described it in 1843 as Uperodon ornatum, in the reptiles volume of the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, from a specimen labeled Buenos Ayres, with syntypes catalogued at the British Museum; the genus Ceratophrys, where it eventually landed, had been erected by Wied-Neuwied in 1824. Modern keeping rests on two species rather than one, since Cranwell's horned frog, Ceratophrys cranwelli, is bred and sold alongside the ornate. Breeders also cross Ceratophrys cranwelli with the Surinam horned frog to produce the captive hybrid marketed as the fantasy frog.

🧠 Test Yourself