Ancient amphibians discovered in Brazil
Ancient amphibians discovered in Brazil
5 November 2015
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Two new extinct amphibian species that lived 278 million years ago have been uncovered in northeastern Brazil alongside the oldest terrestrial reptile skeleton ever found in South America. Described today in Nature Communications, they were discovered during field expeditions by an international team, including scientists from the Natural History Museum in London, and colleagues from Brazil, Argentina, Germany, the USA and South Africa.
The two new aquatic amphibians are relatives of modern salamanders. Timonya annae was a small fanged creature reaching 40 centimetres long that looked like a cross between a modern Mexican salamander and eel. Procuhy nazariensis, was a close relative of Timonya and would have reached a similar length. Both species are from an extinct group known as the dvinosaurs, distant relatives of modern salamanders. Skull remains of a rhinesuchidae steresopondyl amphibian whose distant relatives lived in South Africa in later times were also found.
The find fills an important geographic gap in our understanding of the evolution and adaptation of amphibians, a group that is increasingly under threat today from environmental change and diseases such as the chytrid fungus. Until now, our knowledge of four-legged vertebrates from the beginning of this pre-historic period was limited to North America and Western Europe, with very little known about which animals lived in the southern tropics.
Dr Martha Richter, palaeontologist and fossil vertebrates collection manager at the Natural History Museum and co-author of the study says:
'This discovery is remarkable as most of what we understand about the evolution and adaptation of amphibians through time is based on animals located in Europe and North America. Now that we know that their distant relatives inhabited a vast lake system in the tropical region of the supercontinent Pangaea in areas that correspond to north-eastern Brazil, we can find out more about their abundance, palaeobiology and how wide their distribution away from the equator was.'
- See more at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/ancient-amphibians-discovered-in-brazil.html#sthash.bErYvLNI.dpuf
Science:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122843573
