Predatory amphibians swam the seas 237 million years ago — SkimNews
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- The fossil found in China overturns the belief that amphibians’ permeable skin made them unsuited to marine life because it would absorb too much salt from seawater.
- Predatory amphibians swam the seas 237 million years ago, the age identified for the China fossil that challenges the salt-skin objection.
Why it matters: For researchers of amphibian evolution, the 237-million-year-old fossil is a direct counterexample to the belief that permeable skin ruled out marine life through excess salt absorption. It revises the early history of amphibian ecology by documenting predators in the seas at that time.
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