A salamander species that roamed the Earth alongside dinosaurs has been discovered by scientists in Russia.
Remains of the amphibian that lived some 168 million years ago were found at an archaeological site in Western Siberia.
Paleontologists believe the species, named ‘Egoria malashichevi’, belong to the world’s oldest group of salamanders known as stem salamanders.
The researchers excavated the fossils from the Berezovsky quarry during various expeditions in the mid-2010s.
With the data gathered from their finds, the team was able to create 3D reconstructions of the species and describe its internal structure.
Based on their analysis, the team believe the E. malashichevi to be around 20cm long.
While it is the most recent species to be found in the quarry, other ancient stem salamanders such as Urupia monstrosa and Kiyatriton krasnolutskii were also unearthed at the site.
Dr Pavel Skutschas, of St Petersburg University, detailed the exciting new find in the journal Plos One, describing how the newly discovered species differed to modern-day vertebrates.
“Salamanders first appear in the fossil records in the Middle Jurassic, including representatives of both the present-day salamander families and the most primitive ones,” he said.
“When they had just appeared, salamanders made efforts to occupy different ecological niches.
“Thus, the stem salamanders filled the niche of large water bodies; while those close to the present-day salamanders found their niche in small water bodies.
“As for the newly discovered salamander, it occupied a middle position, although morphologically, it is closer to the primitive.”
The next step, Dr Skutschas said, will be to compare the bones from the Berezovsky site with the salamander fossils from the Kirtlington quarry in Oxfordshire.
The UK archaeological site is the world’s richest for mammal fossils from the Middle Jurassic age, about 172 million years ago.
Dr Skutschas believes the salamander fossils from both sites “may be representatives of the same genera”.
He said: “However, to ascertain this, a detailed comparison of the palaeontological collections is required."
