Angler's Mail and The Sun are leading a media fright fest over a giant snakehead sighting in the UK.

Giant snakeheads are a vicious fish from east Asia. They can grow to be longer than 3 feet, weight more than 44 pounds, and are considers by some to be "more dangerous than the piranha." A British angler snagged the ferocious fish from a river in Lincolnshire, England. The scaled savage was probably dumped into the river when it outgrew some chap's aquarium. But several UK papers have asked if a snakehead invasion is lurking beneath the surface of English waterways.

(Credit: Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service)

Yes, by posting this, Monster-Watch is simply fueling an over-hyped tabloid frenzy about a creature very few Britons will ever encounter. But let me feed you some truth:

The US Geological Survey reported that fishers and swimmers who stumbled too close to a snakehead's young "were attacked, some seriously wounded, and there have been fatalities." Children have been dragged under and in one instance a man was "nearly castrated by an attacking giant snakehead."

Even when left alone, a snakehead will "kill more fishes than it consumes."

The Sun (a less scrupulous source than the USGS) reported that "snakeheads caused chaos when they were found in America in 2002, with snipers setting up on banksides to shoot them."

So, should you head for your sniper rifle? Probably not. But you should certainly avoid snakeheads at all cost. Need more proof? Check out the video we've linked to below. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

When fresh monster news comes around, we at Monster-Watch usually get so excited that we can't wait to write about them. But for today's report of a massive frog fossil from Madagascar, I think I'll let the research team describe it in their own words.

First off, the 70-million-year-old frog is called Beelzebufo, or "devil frog from hell."

Beelzebufo leers at his hors d'oeuvre, the largest living frog in Madagascar today. (Credit: Luci Betti-Nash, Stony Brook University)

"This frog, a relative of today's horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball."

"They are just these big round blobs, basically all mouth and stomach."

"These ceratophyrines are really aggressive, ambush predators.... They will sit there and grab onto anything that walks past... They're sometimes called Pac-Man frogs.... And at two or three times the size of the largest living ceratophyrines, Beelzebufo would have had quite a lot more attitude."

"When you consider its size, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that it could have consumed some hatchling dinosaurs." The largest living frog on Madagascar today, at only 4 inches, "would have been a nice hors d'oeuvre for Beelzebufo."

"When we found out that some of its relatives even have little horns on their heads, the 'devil frog from hell' seemed an even more appropriate name."

These quotes were plucked from comments by Susan Evans of University College London and David Krause of Stony Brook University from National Geographic, New Scientist, and the BBC.

A pair of Saharan predators were unveiled today – each similar in appearance but vastly different in hunting tactics.

Eocarcharia dinops (Fierce-eyed dawn shark) hunted like a great white. It had a jaw full of dagger-like teeth, hinting that it ripped into live prey, tore at limbs, and disabled the victim. Eocarcharia also sports a large bony eyebrow. The team suggests that this ridge of bone was used as a battering ram to slam against peers and vie for mating rights.

Eocarcharia (Credit: Todd Marshall, courtesy of Project Exploration)

Kryptops palaios (Old hidden face) feasted like a hyena. Quick on its two legs, it gnawed on flesh and ripped at carcasses. It had a short jaw of tiny teeth, which was better at wolfing down innards than nipping at a moving target. Kryptops' name comes from the spikes that lined its face.

Kryptops (Credit: Todd Marshall, courtesy of Project Exploration)

Both lived 100 million years ago in present day Niger and, at first glance, both resemble tyrannosaurs rex. But T. rex never made it to any of the southern continents. These two, and their cousins, were the massive carnivores of the lower lands. They rivaled the Suchomimus (the so-called Super Croc) for dominance and stalked the long-necked Nigersaurus (which sounds like a blacksploitation film) for food.

Eocarcharia and Kryptops (Credit: Todd Marshall, courtesy of Project Exploration)

If you want to read more about the dual find, paleontologists Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and Stephen Brusatte of the University of Bristol posted their paper here.

(Credit: The Wall Street Journal)

The WSJ blog Business Technology ran an article about all the conspiracy theories surrounding the recent clipped undersea cables in the Middle East. Who could have snipped those wires? Fishing boats? Islamic extremists? The CIA?

"It might have been sharks with laser beams on their heads," Stephan Beckert told the Journal. He researches Internet cables for TeleGeography.

Sadly, Beckert was only joking. But I give credit to the Journal for having a sense of humor.

Happy Darwin Day! February 12th celebrates the birth of Charles Darwin (and, coincidentally, of Abraham Lincoln) in 1809. Chuck D would be 199 today (so next year's gonna be huge!) and in honor, we give the rundown on some of the creatures he studied.

Darwin's best finds came in South America, on his famous voyage on the HMS Beagle. Here he found fossil evidence of the following mighty beasts.

Megatherium: The size of an African bull elephant, with enormous claws on its feet, twenty feet tall when standing: Megatherium would be a terrifying foe... except that it was a sloth. (If only he were twenty-one feet tall, he could taste that text above him.) The giant ground sloth mostly ate plants, but there's some evidence that it would occasionally chow down on...

Glyptodon: The evidence that Megatherium ate this big fella is as follows: Glyptodon was the size of a VW Beetle, so only Megatherium was big enough to flip it over. Glyptodon, a relative of the armadillo, was a huge, armored mammal that ate the heavy plants growing along riverbanks.

Just try and flip me! I dare you!

Toxodon: This mighty ungulate (hoofed mammal) looked like a hippo, and he lived like one, too. Yet another herbivore, he probably chilled in the water until attacked by a Smilodon, or saber-toothed tiger to you and me.

Dum dee dum, just mindin' my own business...

In Australia, Darwin found less huge and less fossilized creatures. He especially enjoyed the next two, which prompted him to wonder if a separate Creator had made these strange beasts...

Rat-Kangaroo: A rabbit-sized jumping marsupial with a curly tail, the rat-kangaroo looks like, well, a little kangaroo. And that's pretty much what it is.

Platypus: The platypus is a true modern marvel. Along with the echnida, the platypus is the only modern mammal that lays eggs. It's also one of the few venomous mammals: the male platypus has ankle spurs that secrete a unique venom strong enough to kill a small animal or incapacitate a human. Throw a duck bill into the bargain and you get a creature that European naturalists, not unreasonably, thought was a fraud when they first heard of it.

So on this February 12th, celebrate the life and work of one of the great heroes of science. And you should probably start planning for next year-- it's the big bicentennial, and you know how the human animal loves to party.