Just when you think 2025 can’t get any weirder, China goes and discovers a new species:  a short-legged toad with a head so disproportionately large it could headline its own cartoon franchise. Scientists describe the head as “enormous, extremely wide and flat, about 1.5 times as broad as long” which basically means it’s built like a pancake but with eyes.

Males of this new amphibian wonder also have a vocal sac right at the corners of their mouth, which they use to let out 9-to-18-beat calls during breeding season. Imagine a tiny nightclub DJ in a swamp, hyping up the ladies with frog EDM.

Part of me reads this and immediately thinks: science fiction movie. Cue Sigourney Weaver parachuting in, eyes narrowed, ready to protect humanity from the short-legged flathead menace. The other part of me? Oh, that part thinks this belongs in a Madagascar spin-off where the toad is voiced by Danny DeVito and wears a tiny crown.

Of course, knowing how trends work, I give it six months before these toads inspire creepy-cute mechanical desk toys, complete with sound chips. They’ll be the new Tamagotchi, except instead of feeding them pixels, you’ll have to endure 18-beat mating calls during Zoom meetings.

Nature never fails to deliver sometimes beauty, sometimes majesty, and sometimes a squat, big-headed swamp DJ who might just become your next favorite meme.