article_snippet: It was the type of fierce predator that the very first dinosaurs had to put up with if the very first dinosaurs strayed too close to the water, long before the glory days of T. rex and Brachiosaurus.'
article_snippet: All were wiped out during a mass extinction 201 million years ago, long before the death of the dinosaurs.
article_snippet: This event marked the end of the Triassic Period, when the super landmass of Pangaea, which included all the world's present-day continents, began to break apart.
article_snippet: a mass extinction 201 million years ago killed off many groups of vertebrates, including giant amphibians, and paved the way for dinosaurs to take over the Earth.
article_snippet: But back in the Triassic these giant predators would have made lakes and rivers pretty scary places to be.'