The debate over if size matters has been solved in the amphibian world: The well-endowed Coastal Tailed Frog (Ascaphus truei) proves it's survival of the biggest.

From Treehugger.com:

arry Serpa, a Nature Conservancy biologist, turned over 1,000 rocks in the Garcia River Forest before finding two coastal specimens, a male with a tail and a tadpole, in 2009.

He was looking because The Nature Conservancy has been working to restore the forest ecosystem along with The Conservation Fund, which helped purchase the land in 2004. To date, Serpa found more than a dozen other tailed frogs and tadpoles.

The coastal tailed frog is one of only 5,000 species of frogs in the world that uses a cloaca. Other frogs fertilize eggs after they've been laid by the female, like salmon.

To read the full article, click here.

This morning I spoke with a very worn out Michele Crutchfield. While the events are still being straightened out with the occurance at the Farm, Michele asked that we pass along this message to the entire reptile community.

We want to thank everyone for their concern and kind words during this hard time for our family. What we ask now is that everyone takes a step back and allows our family the time to grieve and heal. No matter what occurred yesterday at the farm, Bruce Stephenson was a wonderful family friend and we need time to ourselves to handle this tragedy. We ask that our reptile community gives our family the chance to heal without additional stress. Within a few days we will have more, but right now, please respect our privacy.

As we said before, our thoughts here at kingsnake are with The Crutchfield and Stephenson Families.