A killer newt the size of a small car terrorised lakes and rivers during the rise of the dinosaurs, scientists have discovered.
The ferocious amphibian, a distant relative of salamanders living today, took the place of crocodiles as one of the Earth's top predators more than 200 million years ago.
Fossil remains of Metoposaurus algarvensis were found buried at the site of an ancient lake in southern Portugal, which may have been home to several hundred of the creatures.
"This new amphibian looks like something out of a bad monster movie," said Dr Steve Brusatte, from the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led a study of Metoposaurus published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
"It was as long as a small car and had hundreds of sharp teeth in its big flat head, which kind of looks like a toilet seat when the jaws snap shut.
"It was the type of fierce predator that the very first dinosaurs had to put up with if they strayed too close to the water, long before the glory days of T. rex and Brachiosaurus."
The family of giant salamander-like amphibians to which Metoposaurus belonged included other species found in parts of modern-day Africa, Europe, India and North America.
All were wiped out during a mass extinction 201 million years ago, long before the death of the dinosaurs.
