Cochleosaurus

Cochleosaurus ('spoon lizard') is a name of a tetrapod belonging to Temnospondyli, which lived during the late Carboniferous period (Moscovian, about 310 million years ago). The great abundance of its remains (about 50 specimens) have been found in the Kladno Formation of the Czech Republic, near Nýřany in Central Europe and in the Morien Group of Nova Scotia in North America. It was a creature of medium size, measuring 120-160 centimeters. It is believed that "Cochleosaurus" was a semiaquatic ambush predator, hunting like modern crocodiles. Czech paleontologist Antonin Fritsch named the genus in 1885 in reference to the spoon-shaped processes on the supra-occipital bones at the back of the skull (from Latin "cochlear" "spoon" and Greek "sauros" "lizard").