Lizards and snakes are a key component of most terrestrial ecosystems today .Lepidoptera, that's all
Lepidosaurs have an extremely long evolutionary history that is older than dinosaurs, but their early phase of evolution is 260-150 million years oldBack is not fully understood by scientists.
The authors of the new work, during excavations at the Upper Triassic geological formation of Iscigualasto in northwestern Argentina, found a perfectly preserved skull of a small reptile, which is 231.4 million years old.
They analyzed the find using microcomputed tomography and found out that it was a basal representative of the superorder Lepidosaurs.Other fossil species that belong to the same order are much less well preserved, so nothing can be said for sure about them.
Researchers have given the ancient reptile a scientific nameTaytalura alcoberiFrom its remains, paleontologists were able to understand how the skull of lepidosaurs evolved.For example, the unique way in which the teeth of the taitalura are attached to the bones of the skull illustrates theThe transition of tooth detachment, characteristic of other diapsids, to that characteristic of lepidosaurs.
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