Terrifying 6ft-long creature with bone crushing jaws roamed Iowa 340 million years ago - Daily Mail
Scientists from The Field Museum in Chicago have studied the remains of Whatcheeria – a six foot long lake dwelling creature that roamed Iowa 340 million years ago.Scientists from The Field Museum in Chicago have studied the remains of Whatcheeria – a six foot long lake dwelling creature that roamed Iowa 340 million years ago.Whatcheeria was a six foot long lake dwelling creature that roamed Iowa 340 million years ago.To date, around 350 Whatcheeria specimens have been discovered, which are all now housed at the Field Museum.'If you saw Whatcheeria in life, it would probably look like a big crocodile-shaped salamander, with a narrow head and lots of teeth,' said Mr Otoo.Whatcheeria lived underwater and was a 'stem tetrapod' – an early four-legged creature that's part of the same lineage as humans.The team sifted through the specimens at the Field Museum to study Whatcheeria at different phases of its life and track its growth.To date, around 350 Whatcheeria specimens have been discovered, which are all now housed at the Field Museum.Pictured: co-author Ken Angielczyk with a drawer of Whatcheeria specimens behind the scenes at the Field Museum.
Pictured: co-author Ben Otoo standing by a life-size illustration of a large Whatcheeria specimen at the Field Museum
'And so you get an animal like Whatcheeria that's an early tetrapod, but it's also a pretty fast-growing oneA fish with a broad flat head and sharp teeth, Tiktaalik looked like a cross between a fish and a crocodile