Researchers have long examined such ancient predators to uncover the origins of some of the first animals to walk on land.This July 2, 2018 image shows the nearly complete skeleton from fossils recovered in Namibia of a giant salamander-like creature.
“It’s acting like an aggressive stapler,” said Michael Coates, a biologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved with the work.on Gaiasia jennyae were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The creature existed some 40 million years before dinosaurs evolved. Most early tetrapod fossils hail from hot, prehistoric coal swamps along the equator in what’s now North America and Europe. But these latest remnants, dating back to about 280 million years ago, were found in modern-day Namibia, an area in Africa that was once encrusted with glaciers and ice.