Nomina dubia: Genus-level: Species-level: Metoposaurus meaning "front lizard" is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyls, known from the Late Triassic of Germany, Italy, Poland, and Portugal.

[1][2] This mostly aquatic animal [3] possessed small, weak limbs, sharp teeth, and a large, flat head.

[4] This highly flattened creature mainly fed on fish, which it captured with its wide jaws lined with needle-like teeth.

The earliest mention of Metoposauridae dates back to 1842 when Von Meyer described the dorsal view of the skull roof of a labyrinthodont from the Keuper Schilfsandstein of Feuerbacher Haide near Stuttgart.

The group with the lacrimal external to the orbit includes Koskinonodon bakeri, Dutuitosaurus ouazzoui, Arganasaurus lyazidi, and Apachesaurus gregorii.

[1] Described from the Maleri Formation of Central India,[6] was renamed Panthasaurus maleriensis by Chakravorti and Sengupta (2018).

According to a photograph published by Hunt (1993), it is noted that the lacrimal enters the orbit, contrary to the previous finding by Fraas (1889).

A study conducted by Sulej (2007) shows that the parietal contacts the frontal anteriorly, the postfrontal anterolaterally, the supratemporal laterally, and the postparietal posteriorly.

The intercentra of dorsal and sacral vertebrae are fully ossified and form quite short disks, not connected with the neural arches.

This condition resembles that in the trunk of plesiosaurs and, to some degree, the ichthyosaurs, confirming the aquatic mode of life.

However, a variety of other temnospondyl lines carried into the Jurassic, the latest of which was another stereospondyl, the chigutisaurid Koolasuchus, discovered in modern-day Australia, where it was supported by a colder mid-Cretaceous climate.

[5] A recent study conducted in Poland suggests that the broad, flat head and arm bones, wide hands, and large tail of Metoposaurus diagnosticus are significant characteristics which led the researchers to conclude that they swam in ephemeral lakes during the wet season and used their heads and forearms to burrow under the ground when the dry season began.