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Two well-preserved fossils about 237 million years old, found in China's Guizhou Province, reveal a heavily armored amphibian that may be the first known to have lived entirely in the ocean. Fossils 237 million years old found in China reveal a heavily armored, giant salamander-sized amphibian that lived in the oceans. It may be the first known amphibian adapted to a fully marine existence, notable because modern amphibians cannot survive entirely in saltwater. The animal, named Gerrothorax maritimus, was nearly three feet long, with a broad, flattened, disc-shaped body covered in bony armor, and researchers believe it rested on the seafloor to ambush prey much as a wobbegong shark does. Their study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution by a team from the University of California, Davis, Peking University and the Geological Museum of Guizhou, suggests the armor limited water passing through its skin, so it may have drunk seawater through its mouth and used its gills to expel excess salt. Ryosuke Motani of UC Davis said the nearly complete skeletons, with preserved fingers, indicate the animals likely died near where they lived rather than drifting in from elsewhere.