Picture an amphibian over 6 feet long, with a suction-cup mouth containing 4-inch fangs in a 2-foot-long skull that holds a ring of smaller, but equally sharp teeth.
Such a creature dominated the waters 40 million years before dinosaurs usurped it as a top predator and comes from a lineage once thought to be extinct millions of years before its aquatic reign. This creature, Gaiasia jennyae — which could aptly be named “salamander from hell” — is described in a new report in Nature.
“Gaiasia jennyae was considerably larger than a person, and it probably hung out near the bottom of swamps and lakes,” Jason Pardo, a postdoc at the Field Museum in Chicago and co-lead author study, said in a statement. “It's got a big, flat, toilet seat-shaped head, which allows it to open its mouth and suck in prey. It has these huge fangs, the whole front of the mouth is just giant teeth.”
