By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It looked like a cross between a crocodile and a salamander - and definitely was not an animal to be messed with.
After a close examination of its fossilized bones, scientists were surprised to find that Whatcheeria did not follow a slow-and-steady growth pattern during its life akin to many modern reptiles and amphibians but rather grew quickly while young, like birds and mammals. Whatcheeria was an early tetrapod, as the first land vertebrates - animals with backbones - were known.