Giant
amphibious Mastodonsaurus lived on Earth in the middle Triassic about 230
million years ago. These distant relatives of frogs lived in large ponds with
fresh water and were passive predators. They mostly waited for their prey hiding
near the bottom and becoming a sort of a live trap. In Russia their fossil
remains were discovered in Southern Ural. The species was described in 1955 by
paleontologist E.D. Konzhukova.
Modern
amphibians as a rule are not so large; however there are exceptions, for
example the Chinese and Japanese giant salamanders with a length of up to
almost 1.5 m. The giant goliath frog can weigh almost 3 kilos.
Ancient
amphibians could reach enormous proportions, up to 9 meters in length, so our
five-meter long Paleopark inhabitant would not be the largest specimen. However
large sizes did not much help ancient amphibians to win the competition with
the first reptiles.