Panthasaurus maleriensis lived about 225 million years ago in what is now India. It is an ancestor of today's amphibians and has been considered the most puzzling representative of the Metoposauridae.
Panthasaurus maleriensis lived about 225 million years ago in what is now India. It is an ancestor of today's amphibians and has been considered the most puzzling representative of the Metoposauridae. Paleontologists from the universities of Bonn and Opole (Poland) examined the fossil's bone tissue and compared it with other representatives of the family also dating from the Triassic. They discovered phases of slower and faster growth in the bone, which apparently depended on the climate. The results have now been published in the journal "PeerJ".
Temnospondyli belong to the ancestors of today's amphibians. This group of animals became extinct about 120 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous. The Temnospondyli also include the Metoposauridae, a fossil group that lived exclusively in the Late Triassic about 225 million years ago. Remains of these ancestors are present on almost every continent. In Europe, they are found mainly in Poland, Portugal and also in southern Germany.
Panthasaurus maleriensis, the most puzzling representative of the Metoposauridae to date, lived in what is now India, near the town of Boyapally. "Until now, there were hardly any investigation opportunities because the fossils were very difficult to access," explains Elzbieta Teschner from the University of Opole (Poland), who is working on her doctorate in paleontology in the research group of Prof. Dr. Martin Sander at the University of Bonn. Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Opole (Poland), together with colleagues from the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata (India), have now examined the tissue of fossil bones of a metoposaur from the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. The amphibian, which resembled a crocodile, could grow up to three meters in length.
Read more at: University of Bonn
