237-Million-Year-Old Armored Amphibian May Be The First to Live Entirely at Sea
Learn more about Gerrothorax maritimus, an ancient amphibian that may have lived in a fully marine ecosystem.
A newly discovered 237-million-year-old amphibian fossil, named Gerrothorax maritimus, may have been the first fully marine amphibian known to science. Once believed to be exclusively freshwater creatures, amphibians are now known to have inhabited marine environments during the Late Triassic period. Two nearly complete fossils were unearthed in Guizhou Province, China, an area once submerged beneath the ocean and possibly hundreds of miles from land.
The amphibian, about the size of a giant salamander, lived on the seafloor and was covered in thick armor. Researchers believe that this marine amphibian had a flat, disc-shaped body, gills, and bony armor that may have helped protect it from predators. The armor likely resembled that of modern fish, helping to prevent saltwater absorption and filtering impurities.
The discovery of G. maritimus fills in an important gap in the evolutionary history of amphibians, as there were no marine amphibians previously identified in the fossil record.
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