A fossil previously assigned to a more-inclusive group of ancient reptiles recently has been revealed to have features unique to the group of animals, called squamates, that today includes snakes and lizards. Megachirella wachtleri, about 72 million years older than the next earliest-known true squamate, increases understanding of the origin of squamates and other reptiles, and shows they began diversifying not long after the Permian/Triassic mass extinction.
Nature
Published May 30, 2018 (News release from Nature Press)
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Corresponding author: Tiago Simões, University of Alberta – tsimoes@ualberta.ca
