Ol' Rip the Horned Toad Ol' Rip the Horned Toad Ol' Rip (died January 19, 1929) was a horned lizard (commonly referred to as a "horned toad" or "horny toad") whose supposed 31-year hibernation as an entombed animal is believed by some and doubted by others. His name is a reference to the fictional character Rip Van Winkle. In 1897, a horned lizard was placed in a cornerstone of the Eastland County Courthouse in Eastland, Texas along with other time capsule memorabilia. When the courthouse was torn down 31 years later, the cornerstone was opened on February 18, 1928, a live horned lizard was produced,
Arizona toad Arizona toad The Arizona toad ("Anaxyrus microscaphus") is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to the southwestern United States, where its natural habitats are temperate lowland forests, rivers and streams, swamps, freshwater marshes, freshwater springs, ponds, open excavations, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land. The Arizona toad was first described by the American herpetologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1867. He named it "Bufo microscaphus" and the type locality was Fort Mohave, Arizona. It was commonly known as the southwestern toad and for many years, three subspecies were recognized, "B. m. microscaphus", "B. m. californicus"