Giant salamander-like predator with fangs existed 40 million years before dinosaurs, research reveals

Scientists have revealed fossils of a giant salamander-like beast with sharp fangs that ruled waters before the first dinosaurs arrived. The animal, researchers say, is roughly 272-million-year-old.

The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The researchers dubbed the species Gaiasia jennyae, an hommage to Gai-as Formation in Namibia, where the fossil was found, and to Jenny Clack, a paleontologist who studied how vertebrates moved from water to land.

"Gaiasia jennyae was considerably larger than a person, and it probably hung out near the bottom of swamps and lakes," said Jason Pardo, an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the Field Museum in Chicago and the co-lead author of the study, in a news release.