Ryosuke Motani

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Fossil shows an amphibian that lived fully in the Triassic sea

Co-author of the Gerrothorax maritimus paper

A paper published October 26 in Nature Ecology & Evolution describes a 237-million-year-old armored amphibian from Guizhou, China. Its authors say the animal grew up drinking seawater, something no living amphibian does.

Updated Nov 2

Notable Quotes

In most cases, they do it by drinking fresh water.

from Fossil shows an amphibian that lived fully in the Triassic sea · Updated Nov 2

Carcasses at sea, unless they sink to the bottom right away, tend to dry out and lose limbs prior to sinking to the bottom.

from Fossil shows an amphibian that lived fully in the Triassic sea · Updated Nov 2

But these animals had their fingers preserved, so that means they probably died near where they lived.

from Fossil shows an amphibian that lived fully in the Triassic sea · Updated Nov 2

The most important finding is that there was an early amphibian that lived in the sea full-time.

from Fossil shows an amphibian that lived fully in the Triassic sea · Updated Nov 2