Name:
Gerobatrachus (Greek for "ancient frog"); pronounced GEH-roe-bah-TRACK-us
Habitat:
Swamps of North America
Historical Period:
Late Permian (290 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 5 inches long and a few ounces
Diet:
Insects
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Frog-like head; salamander-like body
About Gerobatrachus:
It's amazing how a single, incomplete fossil of a 290-million-year-old creature can shake up the world of paleontology. When it made its debut in 2008, Gerobatrachus was widely touted as a "frogamander," the last common ancestor of both frogs and salamanders, the two most populous families of modern amphibians. (To be fair, the large, frog-like skull of Gerobatrachus, combined with its relatively slender, salamander-like body, would set any scientist to thinking.) What this implies is that frogs and salamanders went their separate ways millions of years after Gerobatrachus' time, which would vastly accelerate the known rate of amphibian evolution. Today, the verdict is mixed; Gerobatrachus may well be as important as claimed, but it may also have represented a side branch of prehistoric amphibians that left no living descendants.
