The fossil of a giant predatory amphibian was found in a retaining wall

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In 1990 a 240 million year old amphibian fossil was found in rocks that were intended to be part of a retaining wall. 30 years later, the scientific community has given it a name and accepted it as a new species. The remains belonged to Arenaerpeton supinatus , an animal more than a meter long.

The new species of prehistoric amphibian was presented on the Jou Phone Number List rnal of Vertebrate Paelontology portal . The fossil is the only record of the species Arenaerpeton Supinatus that belonged to the class of temnopondyls. They measured up to 10 meters, had a triangular skull and, as they had hard, conical teeth, the scientific community attributes predatory behavior to them.

Artist's representation of what the Arenaerpeton Supinatus looked like
Artist's representation of what Arenaerpeton Supinatus looked like (Photo: UNSW)
Paleontologist Lachlan Hart in coordination with the team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, studied the remains of the only Arenaerpeton Supinatus found. Thanks to the fact that almost the entire body is captured in quarry stone, it is now known that the amphibian that lived in the Triassic period resembled Andrias davidianus , the Chinese giant salamander. It measured 1.2 meters from head to tail, was larger than its contemporary descendants and had crooked teeth.

To give it a name, they used the Latin word “sand” to refer to the stone tomb in which they found his remains and united it with “erpeton”, a concept used to name anything that crawls. Since the amphibian was found with its belly up (supine position), they used the original word “supinatus”.



The Australian research community is excited by the new inclusion of the amphibian. The report clarifies that temnopondyl fossils are extremely rare. There are only three species recorded in the region. The Arenaerpeton, in addition to being the fourth in the country, is the first to be native to New South Wales and comes directly from the Middle Triassic. The group chigutisauridae , where the new specimen comes from, originated in Gondwana and all the fossils found come from Argentina, Brazil, India and South Africa.

The fossil of the Australian amphibian is preserved almost entirely in quarry stone.
The fossil of the Australian amphibian is preserved almost entirely in quarry stone. (Photo: UNSW)
Temnopondyls appeared before the dinosaurs and lived longer than them. They originated in the Carboniferous period of the Paleozoic era and their last lineages reached the lower Cretaceous period. The last of these amphibians found was Koolasuchus , named in 1997 and also discovered in Australia.

“The last of the temnopondyls were in Australia 120 million years after Arenaerpeton , and some grew to massive sizes. The fossil record spans two mass extinction events, so perhaps this larger evolution helped its longevity,” explained Lachlan Hart.