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investigator in Namibia have observe fossils from a Brobdingnagian , extinct swampland animal with a lav place - shaped skull .
Gaiasia jennyaeexisted around 280 million twelvemonth ago — about 40 million years beforethe first dinosaursevolved — and offers a glance into the early evolution of tetrapods , or four - limbed vertebrates .
Huge predator that lived in swampy lands of Gondwana 280 million years ago discovered in Namibia outcrop.
Its skull was more than 2 foot ( 0.6 meters ) long , and investigator judge the entire fauna could have been to 8.2 fundament ( 2.5 megabyte ) long , potentially making it the bad brute of its kind , agree to a statement .
research worker described the swampland creature in a study published Wednesday ( July 3)in the journal Nature .
" Gaiasia jennyaewas considerably larger than a person , and it probably hung out near the bottom of swamps and lake , " study Colorado - lead authorJason Pardo , a researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago , said in a separate statement .
The fossils ofG. jennyaewere found lying in an outcrop of the Gai-As Formation.
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G. jennyaehad interlocking jaw that enabled it to hunt for prey . The researchers believe it was likely the apex predatory animal in its swampy ecosystem .
" It ’s got a big , categorical , john seat - shaped head , which allows it to open its backtalk and suck in prey , " Pardo said . " It has these huge fang , the whole front of the mouth is just giant teeth . "
Artist impression ofG. jennyae, which lived in swamps on the supercontinent Gondwana.
The researchers chance upon the fossils in the Gai - As Formation in northwestern Namibia , which was the southern part of the supercontinent Gondwana whenG. jennyaeexisted . The team discovered dodo from four individuals , including skull fragment and a vertebral chromatography column .
" When we found this tremendous specimen just lying on the outcrop as a elephantine concretion , it was really shocking , " bailiwick cobalt - lead authorClaudia Marsicano , a investigator at the University of Buenos Aires , say in the statement . " I knew just from see it that it was something completely dissimilar . We were all very aroused . "
Around the timeG. jennyaelived , innovative - day Namibia was situate further in the south , almost parallel to the northmost point of Antarctica today , and an methamphetamine geezerhood was coming to an closing .
While the commonwealth near the equator had begun drying up and raw creature were evolving to fill up niches , swamps closer to the poles remained , enable animals to retain more primitive features ..
G. jennyaeis a stalk tetrapod — an former craniate that march average characteristics between fish and the first true four - limbed tetrapod . Stem tetrapod still retained aquatic features like lamella and had limbs that were not amply evolved for motion on land .
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" It ’s really , really surprising that Gaiasia is so archaic , " Pardo said . " It was connect to organisms that lead extinct probably 40 million years prior . "
G. jennyaeshows how animate being that existed further south were radically different from those nearer to the equator , Pardo said in the argument . Its success during this vital geological point could shed light on how the world was deepen to back up different form of lifespan .
" The more we count , we might find more response about these major creature groups that we care about , like the root of mammal and modern reptiles , " Pardo enunciate .
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