Modern giant salamanders live only in water – but their
ancestors ventured out on land.
Giant salamanders (cryptobranchidae) are amazing animals.
These amphibians can live to be 100, can grow up to two meters in length, and
they have been around for more than 56 million years. The fossils of giant
salamanders are found relatively often in Eurasia; they show little variation
from their modern descendants. Early giant salamanders had a similar lifestyle
and were just as big as today’s, which live in East Asia and North America. But
while the latter stick to oxygen-rich, fast-flowing mountain streams in China,
Japan and the US, their ancestors also lived in rivers and lakes in the
lowlands.