Scientists have studied the remains of a lizard with teeth as sharp as a butcher knife. According to the study, she is so
Paleontologists have discovered fossilized remainsa tiny reptile with razor-sharp teeth in the vault of the Natural History Museum in London. They have been there since it was discovered in a quarry near Bristol, England, in the 1950s. Scientists knew almost nothing about this individual.
As part of a new study, expertsanalyzed the fossil and found that the lizard lived approximately 202 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic period (237 million years ago to 201 million years ago). Computed tomography (CT) scans of the fossil helped researchers realize that the lizard belongs to the phylum Squamata, the largest order of reptiles. It includes lizards, snakes and a group of legless amphisbaenian lizards.
Side view of a lizard's skull and razor-sharp teeth. Image courtesy of David Whiteside, Sophie Chambi-Trowell and Mike Benton/Natural History Museum UK
According to scientists, the fossil is quitesmall to “fit in the palm of your hand.” Experts had at their disposal a three-centimeter skull with a jaw full of sharp teeth. Due to the fossil's small size, researchers had to use less invasive methods to study the lizard. When the fossil was found, they were not there yet.
The scientists named the fossil Cryptovaranoides microlanius, the species name meaning "little butcher" and the genus meaning "hidden" and "lizard-like".
Age C.microlanius rewrites the origins of modern lizards and snakes, scientists write. Scaly animals appear to have lived 30 million years earlier than previously thought. According to the study's authors, the discovery "helps complete the picture" of squamate evolution.
Read more:
The egg was dropped from space: look what happened to it
Brain-eating amoeba is spreading in the US: is there a danger to Russia
See what a woman Thora looks like. She lived 800 years ago
</ p>