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The animal whose remains researchers found in Namibia is older than the dinosaurs. The discovery provides insights into the prehistoric ecosystem.
Windhoek – New fossils are being discovered all the time. Sometimes by pure chance. One man found a huge fossil while walking his dog. These discoveries give us an insight into which animals and Plant populated the earth in prehistoric times.
About a decade ago, scientists in Namibia came across several fossilized remains. After lengthy analysis of the fossils, it is now clear that they are Gaiasia jennyae, a prehistoric apex predator that looked similar to newts. This predator, larger than a human, dominated the swamps of what is now Namibia about 280 million years ago.
Researchers find fossils of prehistoric swamp creature in Namibia
The prehistoric predator was named after the Gai-As rock formation in Namibia, where the remains were discovered, and after the late paleontologist Jennifer Clack, as the Swiss Daily Advertiser reported. Only recently New dinosaurs were discovered in Canada.
The researchers published their findings on the predator in the journal NatureGaiasia jennyae, the newt-like predator, was over two and a half meters long and had a flat, 60-centimeter-long head. The publication compares the shape of the skull to a toilet seat.
“Something completely different” – discovery enables researchers to reconstruct anatomy of prehistoric animal
Claudia Marsicano, co-author of the study, knew from the first glance at the fossils that it would be “something completely different” to what had been discovered so far. The entire Namibia team was very excited. The scientists found several specimens of a total of four of the predators, including a well-preserved skull and spine. The skull enabled the team to reconstruct the anatomy and hunting methods of the giant prehistoric predator.
“It has huge fangs, the whole front part of the mouth is just huge teeth,” Jason Pardo, co-author of the study and postdoctoral fellow at the Field Museum in Chicago, is quoted as saying by the portal Popular Science. Although Gaiasia jennyae was a remarkable predator, it was also a “relatively slow ambush predator,” the scientists concluded. It probably lived mainly in swamps and lakes.
Giant newt lived long before the dinosaurs and was the top predator in its ecosystem
Gaiasia lived during the early Permian period, about 280 million years ago – about 40 million years before the first dinosaurs evolved. Gaiasia was an early tetrapod, a four-limbed land vertebrate.
It is noteworthy that the prehistoric predator is an archaic remnant related to organisms that became extinct 40 million years earlier. The researchers suspect that Gaiasia was a dominant apex predator in its ecosystem, suggesting a surprising ability to adapt and survive. Recently Researchers also discovered fluid in a thousand-year-old animal eggwhich also seems to have stood the test of time.
The discovery of a new species of giant anaconda, however, had a tragic ending. The researchers hope that the perpetrators will be punished severely. (nbe/sp/dpa)
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