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Two Amphibian Species That Lived 278 Million Years Ago Discovered in Brazil

Timonya annae was a small amphibian but it had fangs and gills

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Two ancient amphibians from the Permian period was recently discovered and described in the journal Nature Communications and the amphibians are truly interesting species. The first one, Timonya annae was a small amphibian but it had fangs and gills, and looked like what the researchers said was a crosss between a modern Mexican salamander and an eel. 

"Almost all of our knowledge about land animals from this time, comes from a handful of regions in North America and western Europe, which were located near the equator," said Field Museum scientist Ken Angielczyk, one of the paper's authors. "Now we finally have information about what kinds of animals were present in areas farther to the south, and their similarities and differences to the animals living near the equator."

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The second species, Procuhy nazarienis, which means “fire frog” in the Timbira language of Brazil, was found in the Pedra de Fogo Formation, or Rock of Fire, hence the name. Flint was found in that formation. The two species are distant relatives  but are not true frogs or salamanders, but come from a now extinct group that thrived during the Permian Period.