Researchers have discovered an unusual prehistoric predator in what is now Namibia. Its head alone, armed with fangs, was over half a meter long; the entire animal (the photo above shows the fossilized skeleton) was about two meters long.
About 300 million years ago, it probably lurked at the bottom of swamps and lakes, opening its wide, flat mouth to suck in passing creatures and hold them with a powerful bite.
The creature, which resembles a giant salamander, was given the scientific name Gaiasia jennyae. Remains of the species were found in the Gai-As formation in northwestern Namibia, the team led by Jason Pardo of the Field Museum in Chicago reported in the journal Nature.
The tetrapod creature lived around 280 million years ago in the Permian period – long before the first dinosaurs emerged. It was a particularly archaic species of that time; related species had already become extinct around 40 million years earlier.
Was probably the most important predator in the ecosystem
For being such a relic of ancient times, the unusual creature did quite well; it appears to have been the top predator in the area’s ecosystem. Other archaic animals were small and rare 300 million years ago, Pardo explained.
Source: Krone
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