ScienceQuiet 7d · day 14
First fully marine amphibian discovered in 237-million-year-old fossils
Gerrothorax maritimus, an armored amphibian the size of a giant salamander, lived entirely in Late Triassic seas—upending assumptions about amphibian salt tolerance.
What to know
- Two 74-centimetre fossils of Gerrothorax maritimus, a primitive armored amphibian, show that amphibians lived entirely in the ocean 237 million years ago—the first fully marine amphibian ever found.
- Body armor originally evolved for freshwater protection became an impermeable barrier that allowed the creature to survive in seawater, solving the salt-tolerance problem that makes marine life normally fatal to amphibians.
- Strontium isotope analysis and fossil location (30+ km from Triassic-era land) confirmed the creature grew to adulthood in the ocean, not washed there after death.
“It was a flat animal that lived on the sea floor. It was probably an ambush feeder.”
Ryosuke Motani, Paleobiologist, UC Davis · New Scientist ↗
Ryosuke Motani Paleobiologist, UC Davis; study co-authorSteve Brusatte Paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, University of EdinburghJohn Long Researcher, Flinders University, Australia
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