{"id":46241,"date":"2025-06-02T18:50:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T18:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found"},"modified":"2025-06-02T19:02:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T19:02:36","slug":"ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Fossil of Giant Salamander-Like Predator Found"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>The fossils belong to what was once a giant, predatory salamander-like creature that lurked in fresh water before dinosaurs even walked our earth. According to the team, the freshwater creature resembles a salamander and had a mouth that was flooded with huge fangs.<\/p>\n

In a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, scientists have revealed fossils that were discovered in 2014 and 2015 during consecutive expeditions to the deserts of the Huab Basin of northwest Namibia. The discovery is an exciting one, as the researchers note that the fossils belong to the \u201clargest digited stem tetrapod known at present\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bones which were discovered belonged to the species Gaiasia jennyae – a four-legged vertebrate about eight-feet-long with an eel-like body and a large, 2-foot (60 centimeters) long head filled with fangs. Named after the Gai-As rock formation in Namibia, the research team says the specimens belonged to a family of these giant, swamp-dwelling vertebrates that was believed to have been extinct for millions of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early story of the first tetrapods is much more complex than we thought,\u201d said Claudia Marsicano, a study co-author at the University of Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

The predator lived about 280 million years ago during the early Permian period; that was during the time of Pangea and about 40 million years before dinosaurs evolved. Previously, scientists found that these creatures flourished in hot, coal swamps along the equator in what is now North America and Europe. But the recent discovery in Namibia, which was once encrusted with glaciers and ice, is prompting questions about the emergence of tetrapods.<\/p>\n

The discovery also highlights how marginalized sites in South America and Africa have been in the world of paleontology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was displaced in time, displaced regionally and also far too big,\u201d said Claudia Marsicano, a paleontologist at the University of Buenos Aires and an author of a paper describing the animal in the journal Nature on Wednesday. \u201cThere were a lot of things that made it unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 400 million years ago, colosteids and other early tetrapods first evolved. But when the archaic tetrapods disappeared from the jungles of North America and Europe, researchers believed they had gone extinct.<\/p>\n

Only, Gaiasia has been discovered about 20 million years later than expected, said Marsicano.<\/b> Existing in cool waterways may have helped these early tetrapods gain their massive size as well, as competition for meals may have been rarer than those of their jungle-bound counterparts.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Sierra-Leone<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. The fossils belong to what was once a giant, predatory salamander-like creature that lurked in fresh water before dinosaurs even walked our earth. According to the team, the freshwater creature resembles a salamander and had a mouth that was flooded with huge fangs. In a study published in the journal Nature on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":46240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[292],"class_list":["post-46241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"\nAncient Fossil of Giant Salamander-Like Predator Found - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The fossils belong to what was once a giant, predatory salamander-like creature that lurked in fresh water before dinosa ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ancient Fossil of Giant Salamander-Like Predator Found\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The fossils belong to what was once a giant, predatory salamander-like creature that lurked in fresh water before dinosa ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-02T18:50:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-02T19:02:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2025\/06\/sm_1748878294.31269.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1345\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ancient Fossil of Giant Salamander-Like Predator Found\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-02T18:50:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-02T19:02:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found\"},\"wordCount\":419,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2025\/06\/sm_1748878294.31269.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/ancient-fossil-of-giant-salamander-like-predator-found\",\"name\":\"Ancient Fossil of Giant Salamander-Like Predator Found - 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