Whiteside et al / Science Advances
A new study has put an end to the conflict between scientists, with some believing that the fossil in question was from a dinosaur and not a lizard.
The University of Bristol discovered that the world’s oldest lizard has 205 million years. In addition to photographs of the specimen, the new British study, published last Wednesday, brings 3D images so that everyone can check the details of the animal.
This new article was in Royal Society Open Science, but it follows research in Science Advances in 2022.
The small skeleton was discovered in rocks of Triassic age in a quarry near Bristol. The fossil is related to modern anguimorphs (a group belonging to a suborder called Anguimorphawhich includes lizards).
In the original study, the creature was named Cryptovaranoides microlaniuswhich means “hidden lizard, little butcher” because of its identification as a lizard and its sharp teethprobably used to cut prey for food.
Scientific fight
After the publication of the first article, a kind of “scientific fight” began, because other researchers carried out a study contradicting the findings. The argument was that it was not a lizard, but rather a dinosaur.
“We were surprised, perhaps even shocked, that in 2023 another team of academics suggested that Cryptovaranoides was not a lizard or even a lizard relative, but actually a arcossauromorfomore closely related to crocodiles and dinosaurs”, says one of the authors, Mike Benton.
The team then engaged in an in-depth review, checking the original work and the questions asked in the rival paper, exploring all the data, including the original specimen. “We found that most of the concerns raised they were wrong“, points out the researcher.
The professor adds that all the details of the skull, jaws, teeth and limb bones confirm that the Cryptovaranoides it’s a lizardnot an archosauromorph.
“We encode hundreds of anatomical features into Cryptovaranoides and other modern and fossil lizards, as well as several archosauromorphs. We ran the analysis several times and it gave us the original result: the little Bristol reptile is indeed the oldest modern lizard in the world”, concludes the team.
