Mysterious 160 million-year-old creature unearthed on Isle of Skye is part lizard, part snake
The fossilized skeleton of a jurassic reptile which seems to be part of lizard, partly snake, was uncovered on the island of Skye in Scotland.
This mysterious lizard had hung teeth in the shape of a snake to hunt prey 167 million years ago, revealed a new study.
B. Elgolensis According to a statement published by researchers. Scientists suspect that he has chased small lizards, the first mammals and even young dinosaurs, such as small heterodontosaurids herbivores and predators in the shape of birds.
He had a snake -shaped jaw and curved teeth similar to a modern python, but his body was short, with members completely formed like a lizard. B. Elgolensis Also had gecko features on some of his bones, including the back of his skull. Researchers always decipher B. Elgolensis“Evolutionary history, but its discovery could change their way of looking at the early evolution of snakes.
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Scientists currently have a dispersed understanding of the early evolution of lizards and snakes. The two animals belong to a group called Squamata, which emerged about 190 million years ago. There is a certain overlap between the members of the group, but lizards came first and generally has four members, while snakes are without members.
“The fossil deposits of the Jurassic on the island of Skye are of worldwide importance for our understanding of the early evolution of many living groups, including lizards, which began their diversification at that time,” said the study author Susan EvansA professor of vertebrate morphology and paleontology at the University College of London, in the press release.
Co-author of the study Stig walshA main curator of the paleobiology of vertebrates at national museums in Scotland, first discovered the B. Elgolensis fossil in 2015. The team has since spent almost a decade preparing and studying the specimen, which included submitting it to high power X -rays and detailed computed tomography (CT) Imagne scanches.
The researchers determined that B. Elgolensis belonged to a Squamata subgroup called Parviraptoridae, which was previously known only from fragments of other fossils. While snake -like bones had been found near Gecko type bones, some scientists assumed that they came from two distinct animals. The new fossil confirms that a species had the two characteristics, according to the declaration.
“I described for the first time Parviraptorids about 30 years ago on the basis of more fragmentary equipment, so it’s a bit like finding the top of the puzzle box several years after having perplexed the original image of a handful of parts,” said Evans. “The mosaic of primitive and specialized characteristics that we find in the parviraptorides, as shown in this new specimen, is an important reminder that the evolutionary paths can be unpredictable.”
Researchers still do not know if snakes have evolved from species like B. Elgolensis Or if snakes have evolved independently of similar oral parts. It is also possible that B. Elgolensis is a line of stem in Squamata, helping to give birth to all lizards and snakes.
“This fossil leads us far enough, but it does not bring us the whole way”, the main author of the study Roger BensonMacaulay curator at the Paleontology Division of the American Museum in Natural History, said in the statement. “However, this makes us even more excited by the possibility of understanding where the snakes come from.”
