Forty million years before the first dinosaurs evolved, a ferocious predator lurked in swampy waters. Its skull alone was over two feet long. It lay in wait, its jaws open wide, preparing to clamp ...

a different sort of apex predator roamed the Gondwana supercontinent during the late Palaeozoic ice age: a massive, eight foot-long salamander-like creature with an enormous head and powerful fangs.

Perhaps the strangest-looking animal in this catch was a species dubbed Eurycea rathbuni, now known as the Texas blind salamander. Upon discovery, herpetologist Leonhard Stejneger described them ...