Gerrothorax

Characteristics ~ ~ ~ ~

Gerrothorax’s head was shaped like a half circle with eyes that protruded above it. Its lower jaw was not very flexible but its upper jaw was extremely flexible so when it opens its mouth, just its upper jaw moves, tilting upwards around 50 degrees up like a toilet seat. Its body was extremely flat but wide like a salamander pancake with large gastralia or stomach ribs allowing it to lay low to the bottom of freshwater rivers streams and lakes possibly coving itself with mud and sand before ambushing it’s prey like fish crustaceans and insects. Gerrothorax grew to about a meter long and would have weighed roughly 40 pounds "It's weird. It's the ugliest animal in the world," Harvard University's Farish Jenkins. Despite this subspecies G. Pulcherrimus means rather beautiful. Gerrothorax had internal gills previously thought to be feathered external gills like the ones on axolotls and olms. Not much is known about the rock layers where it lived Gerrothorax is the most common fossil, it did live with the ancient turtle Proganochelys and likely likely lived with Phytosaurs animals that seem similar to crocodiles, dicynodonts like Lystrosaurus. Gerrothorax despite appearing on several continents for 35 million years remains practically specimens remain unchanged as if in evolutionary stasis