Giant salamanders once snacked on dinosaurs

New fossils show 6-foot long amphibian

(Royal Ontario Musuem/Dr. Matthew)

Newly discovered fossils show the likelihood that a giant salamander with razor-sharp teeth once roamed the waters of Portugal some 230 million years ago, according to a report by The Huffington Post.

The Metoposaurus algarvensis was about the size of a small car, or about 6 feet long. A University of Edinburgh scientist told HuffPo the salamander "looks like something out of a bad monster movie."

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The HuffPo report said the Triassic ancestor of modern-day newts and salamanders mostly lived off fish, but its size and teeth would have made lakes and rivers scary places at the time, somewhat akin to today's alligators and crocodiles.