Pavel Skutschas, the study’s lead author, explained the significance of the find in a statement, “Salamanders first appear in the fossil records in the Middle Jurassic — including representatives of both the present-day salamander families and the most primitive ones. When they had just appeared, salamanders made efforts to occupy different ecological niches. Thus, the stem salamanders filled the niche of large water bodies – while those close to the present-day salamanders found their niche in small water bodies.”

Egoria isn’t the first ancient salamander specimen discovered at the animal graveyard in Berezovsky quarry. A 24-inch specimen known as Uropia monstrosa came out of the same pit, and likely swam the same seas as Egoria 165 million years ago. Despite the size difference, scientists believe U. monstrosa and Egoria share the same genera. Skutschas believes that both species likely enjoyed a wide habitat in their heyday, extending all the way across what is now Europe and Asia, but he won’t know for sure until his colleagues from England join him in St. Petersburg to confirm his results.

Until then, we’ll just have to wait for researchers to extract Egoria’s DNA from a mosquito trapped in amber, so Jurassic Park can get its least exciting attraction!