When frogs made evolutionary leap

Frogs took advantage of the global catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs, scientists have discovered.

New research shows that 88 per cent of frog species alive today owe their existence to the meteor impact that wiped the planet clean of most terrestrial life 66 million years ago.

Nearly nine out of ten of the amphibian species are descended from just three lineages that survived the mass extinction.

Each of them jumped forward precisely at the point when the disaster happened.