Gaiasia fossil map
Where fossils of Gaiasia have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 275 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 275 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Early tetrapods & amphibians |
|---|---|
| Lived | 298.9–274.4 million years ago (Asselian to Kungurian) |
| Periods | Permian |
| Named by | Marsicano et al. 2024 |
| Fossil records | 1 occurrences at 1 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | Namibia |
| Rock formations | Gai-As |
About Gaiasia
Gaiasia is an extinct genus of stem-tetrapods from the Early Permian of Namibia, containing a single species, Gaiasia jennyae. Gaiasia was a freshwater predator which was exceptional among stem-tetrapods for its combination of relatively enormous size, Southern occurrence, and late survival.
Gaiasia is known from three fossil specimens, including an incomplete skeleton with a crushed skull and partial vertebral column. Though limb material is not preserved, the skull of Gaiasia indicates that its affinities lie with digit-bearing stem-tetrapods (early amphibians, in the broad sense). It was a close relative to the colosteids, a family of aquatic stem-tetrapods with long bodies and small limbs. Most digit-bearing stem-tetrapods, including the colosteids, go extinct by the Carboniferous rainforest collapse near the end of the preceding Carboniferous Period. Gaiasia is one of the few to survive into the Permian alongside crown-tetrapods (the groups directly ancestral to living amphibians, mammals, and reptiles).
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Gaiasia (revision 1293047580), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q127021064.
