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The Prehistoric Lizard Thread

Adam Khor

From Las Hoyas, Spain, home to Pelecanimimus and Concavenator; it may have been food for small theropods. Unfortunately its no free access and I couldn´t find exactly how small it was.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2012.01145.x/abstract

The smallest lizard today may be the pygmy chameleon Brookesia micra:

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmCkUou0OWPZGO3NnTf-DxvWzmmrxZt4H8gMyVoKdfpcTiylXm

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmCkUou0OWPZGO3NnTf-DxvWzmmrxZt4H8gMyVoKdfpcTiylXm

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQI1pFb2uc2ZiX3N5c8qYdqE5Bujgza0zs5MuAkZn4-fnhQw4jxUg

Or the Caribbean gecko Sphaerodactylus ariasae:

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR3ufV6Xb925V_6Mx_xKKaq3Hp9oGEvDWrfkTBPxhLZvrZJcKKLKA

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Comments

Adam Khor

Jucaraseps is in the Spanish news now. It was truly diminutive, only 27 mm long and less than one gram in weight!
No lizard this small was known for the Cretaceous according to the article; it preyed on small insects and was prey of larger vertebrates and large invertebrates (spiders, predatory insects etc)

http://eldiadigital.es/not/54658/descubren_en_las_hoyas_un_lagarto_de_patas_pequenas_y_pies_grandes/

Adam Khor

Named after Jim Morrison, Barbaturex was a big herbivorous lizard up to six feet long, found in Myanmar.

http://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2013/06/04/%27Lizard+King%27+fossil+shows+giant+reptiles+coexisted+with+mammals+during+globally+warm+past

Galvasean

I wonder could we make a Saurian superband alongside Masiakasaurus knopfleri? :pac:

Capt'n Midnight

40 million years is close to when grass started off isn't it ?

Galvasean

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

40 million years is close to when grass started off isn't it ?

Nope.

Adam Khor

11 million years old, pretty rare find:

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/7411/20140605/researchers-find-11-million-year-old-worm-lizard-skull.htm

this-image-depicts-a-virtual-model-of-the-holotype-after-removing-the-covering-crust-and-the-infilling-matrix.jpg?w=600

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Modern day amphisbaenians are amongst the weirdest reptiles in existence- especially Bipes, which retains its forelegs to dig:

Rubecula

I don't think I have ever heard of it to be honest. Nice find.

Adam Khor

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3163687/World-s-oldest-lizard-embryo-discovered-125-million-year-old-baby-discovered-inside-fossil.html

2A94D43600000578-3163687-Scientists_believe_the_embryos_were_well_developed_and_close_to_-a-11_1437051663490.jpg

2A94D43600000578-3163687-Scientists_believe_the_embryos_were_well_developed_and_close_to_-a-11_1437051663490.jpg

Fathom

Evolved from hard to leathery shell. Why? Changing environment? Advantage?

Adam Khor

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/jeddaherdan-aleadonta-africas-oldest-iguanian-lizard-04209.html

Adam Khor

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-00060-2?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=HIGHLIGHT

Rubecula

is it fully grown?

Adam Khor

The lizard, or the Compsognathus?

Rubecula

the Lizard

Adam Khor

I don´t know... I haven´t read the paper proper :B

Rubecula

you come in here with half a story tsk tsk that is my job]]lol

Capt'n Midnight

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-extinct-lizard-eyes-fossil-evidence.html

The third and fourth eyes refer to pineal and parapineal organs, eye-like photosensory structures on the top of the head that play key roles in orientation and in circadian and annual cycles. The new findings help to elucidate the evolutionary history of these structures among vertebrates.

Rubecula

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-extinct-lizard-eyes-fossil-evidence.html

totally new to me this stuff.

Adam Khor

I knew the tuatara had the "third eye" but I didn´t know about this one either.
Reptiles are weird. Remember that sea snake that can see with its tail?

jaxxx

Ewww. If something doesn't come in a single pair it creeps me the poop out!

Adam Khor

For some reason the article linked to above does not mention what kind of monitor lizard this was. Apparently it was Saniwa, from the Eocene, a genus closely related to today's Komodo dragon and kin, which could grow up to 2 meters long or more.
Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, a specimen of this lizard was found preserving not only skin and scales, but even cartilague between the bones and the windpipe!

Adam Khor

http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/6/172411

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a-bird-swimming-in-water-an-illustration-of-the-new-species-primitivus-manduriensis-is-shown-in-its-_876382_.jpg?content=1

Adam Khor

The 15 million year, 25 cm long lizard was a close relative to today's blue-tongue skinks:

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2019/05/australian-blue-tongue-lizard-ancestor-was-round-in-the-tooth/123566

Ardillaun

The first time I heard of skinks was in relation to their ultimobranchial bodies that secrete calcitonin. In mammals, I believe these bodies fused with the thyroid gland.

Adam Khor

Indeed, I think most vertebrates have them in one form or another?

Adam Khor

Not paleontology but very interesting! Komodo dragons found to develop a sort of chain-mail armor under their skin as they grow- protecting practically its entire body from the teeth and claws of other dragons.

Apparently the baby Komodo dragons are born without this armor- they only develop it as they become larger and start interacting with larger adults more often. Good thing too as they are well known to be cannibals.

https://www.sciencealert.com/komodo-dragons-have-elaborate-bone-chain-mail-embedded-in-their-skin

The article doesn´t mention it, but this could have implications for prehistoric monitor lizards such as Varanus priscus (aka Megalania), which was closely related to Komodos and the largest land-dwelling lizard known to this day.

main-qimg-1b1f7092dd4631e771a3fb31377304cd

main-qimg-1b1f7092dd4631e771a3fb31377304cd

It also begs the question of how many dinosaurs had similar armor...

Adam Khor

Complete skull from the Miocene suggests mainland African origin for chameleons:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-57014-5#disqus_thread

41598_2019_57014_Fig1_HTML.png?as=webp

Adam Khor

Neokotus, the oldest lizard known from South America (early Cretaceous):

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-0926-0.epdf?sharing_token=nRSOY15WqIRc40EB9Cfeo9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NDutlEVQOJG3_4limKMjm7OeOF8i5qWJEbLzhNJbC7AJxynCd8MyBx4VTEQkjC_q_VRkHEig-Td2lH5GjJIe5M8G9Q6YWOzd8OlsTscyxXePSOZV8YAsSarPmhlb9huX8%3D

Adam Khor

Very brief video but has a couple impressive glimpses of a Megalania Varanus priscus' restored skull and life-size reconstruction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNZcSDEAAqQ

Adam Khor

Oculudentavis, the supposed hummingbird-sized dino found in amber earlier this year, turns out to be a lizard (albeit an unusual looking one) under closer inspection:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/smallest-dinosaur-known-actually-peculiar-ancient-lizard/

oculodentavis_sabramowicz.adapt.1190.1.jpg

oculodentavis_sabramowicz.adapt.1190.1.jpg

Now, a team of paleontologists has identified a second fossil of Oculudentavis that includes both a skull and additional portions of a body. That fossil confirms that the critter was in fact a lizard—albeit a rather strange one.

“You’ve got this weird, big-eyed, kind of crested-nose thing that certainly doesn’t at first look like a lizard,” says study co-author Susan Evans, a paleontologist at University College London. “It’s weird, but it’s a lizard

Though “dinosaur” comes from the Greek for “terrible lizard,” true lizards and dinosaurs diverged from one another approximately 270 million years ago. Oculudentavis’s large eyes and jaw anatomy suggest that it was active during the day and snapped up prey such as small insects with a quick but weak bite. Those bird-like traits also suggest that the lizard and its bird contemporaries faced similar evolutionary pressures: perhaps a shared taste for bugs, or a shared life in the trees.