The oldest ancestor of lizards discovered in England

The oldest ancestor of lizards, with spectacularly large teeth that allowed it to hunt cockroaches and crickets 242 million years ago, has been discovered in England, according to a study published Wednesday (10) in the journal Nature.

Its skull measured just 1.5 cm and the entire skeleton would fit in the palm of a hand, but "this new animal is completely new and forces us to rethink the evolution of lizards, snakes and the tuatara," a reptile endemic to New Zealand, explained Dan Marke, co-author of the study and a paleobiology student at the University of Bristol, in a statement.

Today, it is the oldest representative of the Lepidosauria, which appeared in the Middle Triassic, shortly before the dinosaurs, another subgroup of reptiles.

"The fossil we discovered has almost none of the characteristics we expected. It has no teeth on the palate, nor signs of articulation in the skull. However, it does have an open temporal bar (...) And, most importantly, it has spectacularly large teeth compared to its closest relatives," detailed Dan Marke.

fbr/ber/rap/hj/hgs/mb/mvv/aa