Ancient Car-Sized Salamander Had Toilet Seat Shaped Head

Posted on March 24, 2015

Scientists have discovered the fossils of an ancient salamander-like amphibian. The fossils of several of the creatures were found on the site of an ancient lake in Portugal. The amphibians grew up to two meters in length making them about the size of a small car. They had flat heads that scientists say resembled a toilet seat when its jaws were shut. The head on the creature on the left does resemble a toilet seat in the artist's sketch above.

The creatures, named Metoposaurus algarvensis, lived during a time period 220 to 230 million ago when the dinosaurs first began their dominance. They lived in lakes and rivers during the Late Triassic Period. The discovery was made by scientists from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Birmingham. The scientists say the have excavated only a fraction of the site in Portugal so there may be more fossils yet to be discovered. A 3D model of the ancient amphibian is pictured below.

Dr. Steve Brusatte from the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh says in a statement, "This new amphibian looks like something out of a bad monster movie. It was as long as a small car and had hundreds of sharp teeth in its big flat head, which kind of looks like a toilet seat when the jaws snap shut. It was the type of fierce predator that the very first dinosaurs had to put up with if they strayed too close to the water, long before the glory days of T. rex and Brachiosaurus."

Dr Richard Butler, of the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, says, "Most modern amphibians are pretty tiny and harmless. But back in the Triassic these giant predators would have made lakes and rivers pretty scary places to be."

A research paper on the ancient amphibian is published here in the journal, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

ANIMALS