Scientists have identified a 240 million-year-old giant-salamander-like creature that was first unearthed decades ago in rocks intended for a garden wall in Australia. The species, Arenaerpeton supinatus — meaning "supine sand creeper" — was an estimated 4 feet (1.2 meters) long and inhabited rivers in what is now the Sydney Basin during the Triassic period (251.9 million to 201.3 million years ago), according to a study published Aug. 3 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
"This fossil is a unique example of a group of extinct animals known as the temnospondyls, which lived before and during the time of the dinosaurs," study lead author Lachlan Hart, a doctoral student in vertebrate paleontology at the University of New South Wales and the Australian Museum, said in a statement.
