Freaky Jurassic Reptile is a strange mixture of snake and lizard

When paleontologists have only so many clues to deduce the original shape of a fossil, it is too easy to make honest mistakes. Sometimes, so -called reasonable hypotheses have put researchers on the wrong track – as shown in a “rediscovery” creature sporting an improbable mixture of reptilian characteristics.

An article in nature published today presented in the world Lies ElgolensisA reptilian creature of the Jurassic era with the short body and the members of a gecko. But as his name, Gaelic for “False Snake of Elgol”, his jaws and his teeth hooked resemble those of modern pythons. The combination was so apparently impossible that when paleontologists uncovered the fossil in 2015, they naturally supposed that all bones belonged to separate animals.

Reclassification places Lies In a group of extinguished squamates – an order of reptiles, including lizards and snakes – called the Parviraptoridae. This group itself was known to be enigmatic of paleontologists, because most of the “individuals” in the group were made up of fragmented fossils with unidentified pieces, according to the researchers.

Revisit the fossil

For the study, the researchers carried out a combination of 3D imaging techniques and scans on X -rays to create a detailed reconstruction of the fossil. They also compiled a comparative family tree using three independent data sets on genetic information from the first reptiles, squamates and a subset of squamata, including snakes, monitor lizards and iguanas.

According to their analysis, they have set up an almost complete skeleton of a strange hybrid creature with traces of lizards and snakes. The resulting creature, about 16 inches long from the head to the tail, looked strange but had technically meaning. The “apparently chimerical individual is indeed a real parviraptorid”, wrote Hussam Zaher, paleontologist at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, in a new and accompanying opinions.

Slippery

On the one hand, rediscovery raises serious questions about how we understand the origin of snakes. The consensus was that snakes separated from the Lizard type creatures, although the exact evolutionary path “remains incompletely understood,” said Zaher.

To be clear, the authors of the article do not suggest that snakes have evolved from Lies. The size of the reptile was relatively large compared to other species similar at the time, so it probably attacked smaller lizards or baby dinosaurs. If Lies is an evolving bizarre or a creature that reflects a broader trend in the genetic history of snakes, researchers cannot be sure.

“”Lies Has characteristics in the shape of a snake of teeth and jaws, but in other respects, it is surprisingly primitive, “said Roger Benson, principal author of the study and a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History (from what we expected, or this could be proof that the predatory group of snake has evolved separately in a primary group.”

“The mosaic of primitive and specialized characteristics that we find in the parviraptorides, as shown in this new specimen, is an important reminder that evolutionary paths can be unpredictable,” said Susan Evans, co-author of the study and paleontologist at the University College in London in the United Kingdom, in the same version.

“This fossil leads us far enough, but that doesn’t bring us all the way,” added Benson. “However, this makes us even more excited by the possibility of understanding where the snakes come from.”