An international team of paleontologists, among which two researchers from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, annnounced on May 16 the discovery of a giant amphibian fossil in Greenland that lived 208 million years ago. This is the largest amphibian discovered in Greenland to this date.
Italian researcher Marco Marzola, PhD student at Faculdade de Ciência e Tecnologias da Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, is the main author of the study on the new species 'Cyclotosaurus naraserluki' that has just been published on “Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology”. Portuguese Octávio Mateus, also from NOVA, north-american Neil Shubin from The University of Chicago and danish Lars Clemmensen from University of Copenhagen also integrated this project.
The discovery of this species with a skull with 57 centimeters and a length of 2,5 and its comparison to other fossils, led the investigators to the conclusion that, contrary to initially predicted, Greenland has more paleontological similarities with Europe rather than with North America.