LONDON — Fossil remains of a previously unknown species of a crocodilelike “super salamander” that grew as long as a small car and was a top predator more than 200 million years ago have been found in southern Portugal, researchers announced Tuesday.
The species grew up to 6 feet in length and lived in lakes and rivers, University of Edinburgh researchers said.
The team said the species, given the name Metoposaurus algarvensis, was part of a wider group of primitive amphibians that were widespread at the time but became extinct. They are the ancestors of modern amphibians such as frogs, and they are believed by paleontologists to have lived at the same time the dinosaurs began their dominance.
Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said the new species is “weird compared to anything today.”
It was at the top of the food chain, feeding mainly on fish, but it was also a danger for dinosaurs and mammals that strayed too near the water, Brusatte said.
The team said the find establishes that this group of amphibians lived in a more diverse geographic area than had been thought.
Andrew Milner, an expert on early amphibians at the Natural History Museum in London who was not involved in the study, said the find “is another piece of the picture.” The Portuguese site has “very good potential to give us more and different types of animal” from the Upper Triassic period, he added.