A previously undiscovered species of crocodile-like amphibian that lived during the rise of dinosaurs was among Earth's top predators more than 200 million years ago, scientists at Edinburgh University said. Palaeontologists identified the prehistoric species, Metoposaurus algarvensi, which looked like giant salamanders, after excavating bones buried on the site of an ancient lake in southern Portugal.The creatures might have died when the lake they inhabited dried up. The species was part of a wider group of primitive amphibians that were widespread at low latitudes between 220 million and 230 million years ago, the team says.The creatures grew up to 2m in length and lived in lakes and rivers during the Late Triassic Period, living much like crocodiles do today and feeding mainly on fish, researchers say.Dr Richard Butler, of the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, said: "Most modern amphibians are pretty tiny and harmless. But back in the Triassic these giant predators would have made lakes and rivers pretty scary places to be."These creatures formed part of the ancestral stock from which modern amphibians - like frogs and newts - evolved, researchers said...