Palaeontologists have discovered the remains of Gaiasia jennyae, a tetrapod predator that lived 280 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs. With a head measuring almost 60 centimetres, sharp teeth and a hunting technique based on ambushes, this animal challenges everything we knew about the evolution of large vertebrates. The discovery was published in 2024 in the journal Nature, after three years of research.
The fossil was found in the ancient swamps of the supercontinent Gondwana, south of what is now Namibia. During the Permian period, this region was a mixture of glaciers and wetlands, an extreme environment that was home to this intriguing creature. Until now, most of these primitive tetrapods had been identified in regions of ancient Ecuador, such as North America and Europe.
A prehistoric hunter
According to National Geographic, the creature was almost three metres long and had a flat, broad head, suggesting that it hid in the murky waters of the swamps to ambush its prey with its enormous fangs before sucking them dry. Despite its intimidating appearance, scientists believe that it was not a particularly fast creature.
Gaiasia jennyae was named after paleontologist Jenny Clack, a specialist in the evolution of tetrapods. According to Sci News, the creature is related to other extinct amphibian-like animals belonging to the Colosteidae family. These animals are more characteristic of an even earlier era and are believed to have been replaced by more modern amphibians and reptiles in the Late Carboniferous period.
A discovery that rewrites evolutionary history
The study was led by Claudia Marsicano, a researcher at the University of Buenos Aires. Marsicano explains that this discovery casts doubt on many previous ideas about how and where the first predators evolved. She states that the discovery of such a primitive animal still dominant in later periods points to a much greater complexity and dynamism in the evolutionary process than previously thought.
According to Marsicano, Gaiasia jennyae was ‘large and abundant.’ Apparently, the creature was the main predator in its ecosystem. According to the researcher, the discovery of this fossil in the southern hemisphere indicates that there was a thriving ecosystem that provided sustenance for these enormous predators.
The expert believes that her research opens up new avenues for understanding how ecosystems developed before the age of the dinosaurs. ‘The more we search, the more answers we will find about these important animal groups that interest us, such as the ancestors of modern mammals and reptiles.’
