Scientists from the University of Bristol have discovered the oldest known representative of the Lizards family in the south-west of England, a small predator, which lived in the middle trias age, shortly before the Dinosaurs appeared. Its discovery changes our ideas about the early evolution of lizards, snakes and tuata, unique "live fossils" from New Zealand. The work was published in Nature magazine.
The old creature was called Agriodontosaurus Helsbypetrae. It was so small that he could fully fit into the human palate, but had big teeth, which could bite the Kittyn coatings of darkens and other insects.
Different with modern lizards and snakes, the old ancestor did not have a corrugated skull or teeth on the palate. However, his structure maintained the cheek and the bone connecting the jaw, a peculiarity that only meets the tuitions.
Fossil was found on the beach in 2015, but its small size (the skull is only 1.5 cm width) and the dense rock was very difficult to study. The European Synchrotron in France has been used for the analysis, which is a powerful source of 100 billion rays of X-rays from medical X-rays.
According to the authors, the unusual anatomy of Adodtonence makes us look a new way to look at how the Lepidosaur Group formed, which includes all modern lizards and snakes.
Translation of: Euromedia24.com
