Palaeontologists discovered a never-before-seen amphibian called Egoria in Russia that is a 8-inch long ancient salamander. It inhabited Earth 176-161 million years ago. The salamander was named after the outstanding Russian paleontologist Yegor Malashichev, who died in December 2018.
According to the author of the study, Associate Professor of St. Petersburg State University Pavel Skuchas, the earliest salamander fossils date back to the Jurassic period. Some species were primitive, others were more like their modern relatives.
As soon as they appeared, the salamanders tried to occupy various ecological niches. Primitive salamanders populated large water bodies, species close to modern salamanders small water bodies. Species Egoria malashichevi occupied a middle position, although morphologically it turned out to be closer to primitive types.
While E. malashichevi is the most recent species to be found in the quarry, other ancient salamanders have also been discovered at the site, including Urupia monstrosa and Kiyatriton krasnolutskii.
The next step, the team said, will be to compare the bones from the Berezovsky site with salamander fossils from the Kirtlington quarry in Oxfordshire.
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