Herps in the News: Prehistoric super salamander was top predator, fossils suggest

A team of research paleontologists were in the location of where an ancient lake used to be in southern Portugal, and excavated the bones of a previously undiscovered species of amphibians. The lake had possibly hundreds of these species in it (most likely the cause of this lake that they once inhabited drying up), but as of late March only 4 square meters had been excavated so the actual amount of remnants isn't known. According to this news article, the amphibian was of the species Metoposaurus algarvensis which was a giant crocodile-like salamander that primarily ate fish. This species, along with many other groups of vertebrates, were wiped out during the mass extinction that occured 201 million years ago, which is nearly 140 million years before the mass extinction of dinosaurs (~65 million years ago). This being said, it is species such as this that gave dinosaurs a "run for their money" back in the day. In fact, the news article mentions that M. algarvensis could grow up to 2 meters (~6-7 feet) and were armed with hundreds of sharp teeth. Furthermore, how we view lakes and rivers as beautiful and peaceful places was not always the case when these fierce predators were lurking in them; these guys actually made lakes and rivers dangerous places to be back then.
The reporter did a good job of explaining how the view of extant salamanders as harmless, is very different than how these salamanders actually were. This was done by bringing in other experts to inform the readers about how fierce and vicious these animals really were. In addition, I think that the author portrayed how large and dominant M. algarvensis was by frequently comparing it to dinosaurs throughout the news article, and even mentioning how the mass extinction 201 million years that wiped out M. algarvensis was what allowed dinosaurs to become the new dominant species on earth. "It was as long as a small car and had hundreds of sharp teeth in its big flat head... It was the type of fierce predator that the very first dinosaurs had to put up with if they strayed too close to the water, long before the glory days of T. rex and Brachiosaurus" (paragraph 11). The report shows that there was no real bias when writing the article, other than the fact that modern salamanders and amphibians are not as gnarly, large, and fierce as they once were long ago. Nevertheless, it is quite impressive to realize that the current harmless, cute looking things that we catch in or around our ponds, were once animals that were as fierce and dangerous as alligators and crocodiles.

Link to News Article: Prehistoric super salamander was top predator, fossils suggest

-Bodi D. (4/6/15)