Marmorerpeton wakei was an early salamander that lived during the mid-Jurassic, about 166 million years ago, in coastal lakes and rivers covering what is now the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Growing to around 40cm long (~1'4"), it had a wide shallow skull with strong jaws similar to those of modern giant salamanders, suggesting it had a convergently similar sort of sit-and-wait ambush predator lifestyle – using suction feeding to pull prey into its mouth, then powerful bites to subdue it.
Although its body was fairly robustly built its anatomy was somewhat neotenic, retaining some late-stage larval features and staying fully aquatic into adulthood.
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References:
de Buffrénil, Vivian, et al. "Histological study of karaurids, the oldest known (stem) urodeles." Historical Biology 27.1 (2015): 109-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2013.869800
Jones, Marc EH, et al. "Middle Jurassic fossils document an early stage in salamander evolution." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119.30 (2022): e2114100119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2114100119
Skutschas, P. P., V. V. Kolchanov, and E. V. Syromyatnikova. "Pedicellate Teeth in Archaic Salamanders (Lissamphibia, Caudata)." Doklady Biological Sciences 520.1 (2025): 28-33. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0012496624600532
Wikipedia contributors. “Marmorerpeton” Wikipedia, 24 Jun. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmorerpeton
