83-Million-Year-Old Crocodile Lizard Fossil Unearthed in France
Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of pan-shinisaur lizard from a partial upper jaw discovered in southern France, pushing back its lineage’s presence in Europe by at least 30 million years.
Paleoartistic reconstruction of Acutodon villeveyracensisthe oldest known member of the pan-shinisaur lineage ever discovered in Europe. Image credit: Olivier Jansen.
Pan-shinisaurs are an evolving group of anguimorph lizards originating from the Lower Cretaceous.
Today, the lineage survives in only one living species: the Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus), an endangered semi-aquatic reptile restricted to small forest streams in southeastern China and northern Vietnam.
Scientists estimate that only a few hundred remain in the wild, threatened by habitat destruction, poaching and climate change.
“The Chinese crocodile lizard is an endangered species that represents the only living species in the Pan-Shinisaurus clade (equivalent to Shinisauria),” said Dr. Olivier Jansen, a paleontologist at the Laboratory Paleontology Evolution Paleoecosystems Paleoprimatology at the University of Poitiers and the CNRS, and colleagues.
“This species survives in small subpopulations in the lowland forests of southeastern China and northern Vietnam.”
“It faces serious threats, including habitat destruction and escalating poaching, which is partly driven by food consumption and drugs, but largely driven by high demand in the illegal pet trade.”
“The Chinese crocodile lizard is also affected by climate change, being a semi-aquatic specialist adapted to remote, densely vegetated waterways within deciduous evergreen forests, dependent on moderate, cool annual temperatures.”
“Although this species is currently on the brink of extinction, the evolutionary history of this group remains poorly understood and the species may become extinct before we solve the mysteries of its origins.”
The newly described pan-shinisaurus species, named Acutodon villeveyracensislived in what is now France during the Campanian period of the Late Cretaceous, about 83 million years ago.
“This Cretaceous record is the oldest in Europe for pan-shinisaur lizards,” the paleontologists said.
“It predates the appearance of this clade in Europe by about 30 million years, raising questions about the paleobiogeographic history of pan-shinisaur lizards.”
The holotype and only material of Acutodon villeveyracensis was discovered near the town of Villeveyrac in Hérault in France.
The specimen is a fossilized upper jaw approximately 2.8 cm (1.1 inches) long, lined with thin, recurved teeth.
It shared several unusual anatomical traits with living and extinct crocodile lizards, including distinctive tooth replacement structures known as resorption pits.
The researchers concluded that the combination of characteristics was unique enough to warrant the designation of an entirely new genus and species.
“Acutodon villeveyracensis is attributed to a pan-shinisaur anguimorph based on a toothed maxilla sharing several characters with the living Chinese crocodile lizard and its fossil relatives, including tall, tapered, recurved teeth, with mesiodistally constricted tooth bases, lacking basal folds but possessing medial resorption pits, and a postero-medially offset antero-superior alveolar foramen,” they said.
Using the skull proportions of living crocodile lizards, scientists estimated that Acutodon villeveyracensis may have exceeded 1 m (3.3 ft) in length.
“This species was certainly a predator, rivaling in size and habitat type two other large squamates found in this ecosystem (i.e., a terrestrial monsteraur and a freshwater mosasaur),” they said.
“The particular dentition of Acutodon villeveyracensiscomposed of fine, tapered, recurved teeth, is consistent with a diet including fish and, by analogy with the Chinese crocodile lizard, it may have also fed on other small vertebrates such as frogs, salamanders and albanerpetonids that inhabited the marshes of the freshwater floodplain of Villeveyrac (Hérault, France).
The discovery of Acutodon villeveyracensis is described in an article published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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Olivier Jansen and others. A new pan-shinisaur lizard (Anguimorpha) from the Lower Campanian of Villeveyrac (Hérault, France). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontologypublished online May 20, 2026; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2026.2636649
