Paleontologist Andre LuJan had an assist from nature with his latest exciting fossil find. Heavy rains helped expose a nearly complete skull of an enormous ancient salamander-like creature in a quarry in northern central Texas. And while it looks a bit like an anxious T. rex from a beloved children’s film, this creature wasn’t a dinosaur.
LuJan found the Eryops megacephalus, a large, semi-aquatic predator amphibian with a large noggin that lived 280 million years ago. The climate at this time was a bit variable, but there were some long periods when desert-like conditions in present day New Mexico and Texas became a more humid and swamp-like environment.
“Eryops is an apex predator (amphibian) from the Permian period,” LuJan, who is also the director of the Texas Through Time Fossil Museum, tells Popular Science. “They could grow up to six feet long (maybe more but this is based on known fossils).”
These enormous salamander-like creatures weighed in at upwards of 200 to 400 pounds and likely would have eaten anything it could fit in its large mouth. Its head was designed for aquatic or semi-aquatic ambush predators, similar to living alligators and crocodiles.
“We can tell by the design of their skull that they were ambush predators, eyes on top of the head along with nostrils to conceal the body while they lay in wait.”
Eryops likely didn’t have the ability to chew, so would have eaten its prey whole or torn it into pieces.
Paleontologists have uncovered their remains along estuaries, streams, or other bodies of water that could support hunting and breeding. Fossils of animals like it have been found in rocks dating back to the Permian in what was once the supercontinent Pangea. Eryops is also a member of a larger group of amphibians which includes present day frogs, toads, and salamanders.
“Think Hell Bender or giant salamander,” says LuJan.
Finding a complete skull like this one is exciting and rare, since they will often collapse under pressure over the millions of years it takes for the bones to fossilize. Having a more complete skull offers up a more full picture of the animal’s life. More skulls also helps because “in paleontology, sample size is everything.” A wider pool of fossils to choose from enables more careful and accurate comparisons, which can tell us more about their evolution.
“In some cases finding pathological growths can teach us about ancient diseases and possible predation and interaction with other predators,” says LuJan.
[ Related: A dinosaur ‘tombstone’ lurks underneath New Jersey. ]
Eryops megacephalus went extinct sometime between 310 and 295 million years ago. However, it may have lucked out with its extinction time. It missed the Permian-Triassic extinction event, aka the Great Dying. Massive volcanic eruptions triggered catastrophic climate changes that completely altered the planet’s entire biosphere. Over roughly 60,000 years, 96 percent of Earth’s marine species and about three of every four land species were wiped out.
The fossils are being cleared and prepared to go on display at the nonprofit Texas Through Time Museum in Hillsboro, Texas–located between the cities of Dallas and Waco. The free museum is also home to the most complete Cretaceous shark ever found in the Lone Star State, a bull Mammoth skull, among other discoveries.
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