Paleontologists in the Brazilian state of Maranhão have discovered the skull of a temnospondyl, a giant predatory amphibian that lived nearly 300 million years ago. This fossil dates back to the Permian Period, a time when the Earth's continents were still joined together in the supercontinent Pangea.
The discovery is vital for understanding the evolution of tetrapods in the Southern Hemisphere. The creature, which resembled a cross between a salamander and a crocodile, provides evidence that these apex predators were widespread in tropical wetlands long before the rise of the first dinosaurs.