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This Tadpole Larger Than A Human Hand Could Never Become A Frog. Here's What We Know
Claim:A photograph shared online genuinely shows an exceptionally large tadpole roughly the size of a soda can or human hand.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
Sources8. Invasive and Problematic SpeciesArizona Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Https://awcs.Azgfd.Com/conservation-challenges/invasive-and-problematic-species. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.
"About." Dr. Earyn McGee, https://earynmcgee.Com/about. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.
Evon, Dan. "Are These Frogs with Eyes Inside Their Mouths Real?" Snopes, 30 Apr. 2021, https://www.Snopes.Com//fact-check/frog-eyes-inside-mouth/.
Lapin, Tamar. Researchers Catch Biggest Tadpole on Record. 14 June 2018, https://nypost.Com/2018/06/14/researchers-catch-gigantic-tadpole-in-arizona/.
Mikkelson, David. "FACT CHECK: Can These Frogs Survive After Freezing in Winter?" Snopes, 5 Feb. 2015, https://www.Snopes.Com//fact-check/frozen-frogs/.
published, Mindy Weisberger. "Meet Goliath, a Massive Tadpole as Long as Your Face." Livescience.Com, 27 May 2020, https://www.Livescience.Com/63238-goliath-giant-tadpole.Html.
Q&A: Lizard-Loving PhD Student Earyn McGeeResearch, Innovation, and Impact. 10 July 2018, https://research.Arizona.Edu/stories/lizard-loving-phd-student-earyn-mcgee.
The Bullfrog Is the "Great White Shark" of Arizona's Wetlands. 31 Aug. 2018, https://www.Nrdc.Org/stories/bullfrog-great-white-shark-arizonas-wetlands.
"The Giant Tadpole That Never Got Its Legs." American Scientist, 30 July 2018, https://www.Americanscientist.Org/blog/from-the-staff/the-giant-tadpole-that-never-got-its-legs.
Giant Robots Fight Giant Lizards In Globalization Allegory
Most have greeted the new sci-fi action movie "Pacific Rim" as mindless entertainment, and it certainly is that. But the movie is about much more than just computer generated action sequences and campy dialogue. In fact, it's an allegory about the effects of globalization on manufacturing employment.
First, some important spoilers. "Pacific Rim" is a film about giant robots fighting giant sea monsters. For reasons that are not clear to begin with, these lizard-like creatures begin to emerge from an inter-dimensional breach deep in the Pacific Ocean, whereupon they attack various port cities. Emerging from the heart of the region most closely associated with globalization anxiety, these monsters represent the forces of creative destruction unleashed: they are unthinking, mysterious, and utterly disruptive.
Today there is growing anxiety about globalization and what it means for many individuals. The ratio of global imports to world GDP has risen from 14 percent in 1970 to just under 30 percent in 2008. At the same time, American manufacturing employment as a percentage of total employment has steadily fallen from 26.5 percent to 9.25 percent over roughly the same time period. Even in absolute terms, manufacturing employment has fallen by more than two million since 2000.
While some of this decline is no doubt due to increases in the productivity of American manufacturing, the recent events in Detroit illustrate the fraught consequences of increased global competition. It's only natural that these anxieties—like the anxieties of previous times and places—should find expression in seemingly unrelated works of popular culture.
When traditional military forces prove less than adequate against the rising tide of monsters, nations naturally respond by building 250-foot tall robots, controlled by a pair of pilots using a kind of next generation Wii system. As the film explicitly notes, these robots were initially developed using DARPA funding, and represent a kind of industrial policy, each nation deploying its own robot champions. There is a Russian robot team, a Chinese team, an Australian team, and of course an American one, each protecting its home country.
But while the robots are initially successful, the monsters keep growing and invading at an ever-faster pace, overwhelming the efforts of the local industries. In response, the world's leaders decide to abandon their industrial robot program in favor of literally building giant walls around all of their ports. It is explicitly mentioned that this has cut off trade and forced rationing and other hardships on the population—though it does seem to create a fair number of short-term blue collar jobs actually building the wall. The one city that doesn't succumb to protectionism is Hong Kong (which happens to be an oft-cited example of free trade success in real life), where the remaining robots all relocate.
Along with the robot teams are two scientists who hope to solve the monster problem. The first, representing the neoclassical school of economics, believes that the behavior of the monsters can be explained and predicted based on mathematical models that he developed (when the models initially appear inaccurate, he gives the standard explanation that his theory was right but the timing was wrong). The second scientist is more of a behavioralist, who thinks that to understand the monsters you have to examine them, how they are, rather than working from deductive theories about them.
Combining their wisdoms, the scientists are able to discover that what appear to be unthinking "market forces" are actually being controlled and manipulated by a race of lizard-like aliens who hope to take over the planet. These lizard-aliens represent an amalgamation of multinational corporations, international finance, and so forth. The rise of trans-national corporations and magnates seemingly detached from any loyalties save global commercial conquest has long been decried, and giant lizards have long been used as a symbol for international bankers (conspiracist David Ickies imagines an international plot of actual shapeshifting lizard aliens). The most recent controversies over multinational misdeeds include accusations of Apple hiding international profits, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renouncing his American citizenship to move to Singapore (and avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes), and massive global price-fixing conspiracies.
While I won't give away the ending, unfortunately the heroes eventually defeat the aliens in a way that doesn't offer much guidance for today's macroeconomic situation.
Searching for deeper meaning in a Hollywood movie about giant lizards may seem a stretch, but it certainly isn't unprecedented. The original "Godzilla" movie was a clear allegory for the atomic bombing of Japan, while "Cloverfield" dealt with post-9/11 psychic traumas. Today there is growing anxiety about globalization as a huge, destructive force beyond the control of individuals, and so it's only natural that this should find expression is popular culture.
Plus, watching giant robots fight is pretty cool.
Josiah Neeley is a Policy Analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, Texas. His views on giant lizards are not necessarily those of his employer.
Follow @jneeley78
Hong Kong's Giant Lizards Might Be Back
Giant lizards were extinct in Hong Kong, but now one scientist says they might be coming back to the city's country parks.
Dr Gary Ades, who works for Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, said there are common water monitors, a large lizard native to South and Southeast Asia, in country parks. They were probably released or escaped from the illegal wildlife trade. And it was highly likely they were breeding in small numbers.
"This interests us on a conservation level because the monitor is probably one of our native species that went extinct, maybe a hundred years or so ago. So quite a few conservationists in Hong Kong would like to see it come back," he said.
"We're rooting for the few escapees. If they manage to survive our cool winters in Hong Kong, they've got the right genetic make-up. That's because some are from Malaysia and more tropical areas, and they probably won't survive the winter. But there may be a few out there that are doing OK."
Anthony Lau, who studies lizards at HKU, said monitors were popular pets in the city. Owners would buy them in pet shops and feed them mice, but would release them once they grew too big.
The water monitor is the world's second-largest lizard after the Komodo dragon, Lau said. An adult can grow to 2 metres in length, although there is a record of one monitor in Sri Lanka growing as long as 3.21 metres.
Both Ades and Lau agreed it would be good to see the lizards re-established in Hong Kong because they would help the ecosystem.
"They eat a lot of [dead animals] and they basically clean up the forest floor," Ades said.
Lau still isn't sure the lizards are back, though. "If the population is here, you should see different sizes, but all you see are adults," he said.
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