World's Oldest Fossil of a Salamander Discovered in China
Posted on March 25, 2012
The world's oldest fossil of a salamander has been discovered. Six fossils of 157 million year old salamanders were found embedded in volcanic ash in an ancient lake bed in western Liaoning Province, China. The ash helped keep the fossil remarkably well preserved. The Jurassic salamander has been given the name, Beiyanerpeton jianpingensis. These fossils take salamanders back another 40 million years into the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic. The previous oldest salamander fossil was a 114 million year old fossil found in Spain.
The ancient 4-inch long Jurassic salamanders resembled modern salamanders. The researchers say differences between the fossil and modern salamndroids include "a discrete and tooth-bearing palatine, and unequivocally nonpedicellate and monocuspid marginal teeth in large and presumably mature individuals."
The research is published here in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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