reptile

Roughly 128 million years ago snakes suddenly burst into an abundant existence on Earth, eventually diversifying into the 4,000 or so species we see today.Yet their prevalence can't be solely attributed to their most obvious characterizing traits: abandonment of limbs and body elongation. While 25 different groups of lizards are limbless, no other type of reptile has reached the explosive level of diversity seen among snakes.To explain their success, Stony Brook University evolutionary macroecologist Pascal Title and…

University of Bristol researchers discovered ancient winged-reptiles, Kuehneosaurs, in Somerset’s Mendip Hills, revealing diverse reptilian life on the Mendip Palaeo-island during the Late Triassic period and expanding our understanding of prehistoric ecosystems. Artist’s impression of a gliding reptile Kuehneosaurus. Credit: Mike CawthorneResearchers at the University of Bristol have discovered that ancient reptiles, capable of gliding, were once inhabitants of the Mendip Hills in Somerset.These creatures, known as…

Scientists have discovered mummified skin that is older than the dinosaurs. The skin, which they say likely belonged to a reptile, is estimated to come from the Paleozoic era, between 541 million to 252 million years ago. It dates back at least 290 million years.The skin was discovered by paleontologists in Oklahoma, and it appears to have a pebble-like, non-overlapping scales design, which is very akin to ancient reptile species, the researchers explain in their study. They say it mostly resembles the extinct…

January 17, 20243 min readPermian period petroleum helped to preserve minute scraps of pebbly hide that probably belonged to a lizardlike creatureBy Emma Marris & Nature magazineDarkened, pebbly scraps are the oldest known 3D fossils of the skin of amniotes, a group that includes birds, reptiles and mammals. A dark shred of fossilized material, just a few millimetres across, “shocked” palaeontologists when they realized what it was. It arrived in a tiny glass vial, sent by fossil collectors in Oklahoma. “We got very…

Researchers believe they’ve found the oldest known fossilized skin, hidden away in a limestone cave system in Oklahoma. The skin sample dates to the early Permian Period, between 289 million years ago and 286 million years ago.Are You Rich Enough to Buy This Folding TV?The skin belonged to an ancient reptile and is epidermis—the outer layer of skin in amniotes, a group that includes terrestrial reptiles, mammals, and birds. A study describing the skin as well as several other fossils found in the cave system is published…

In 2005, the residents of Ban Si Lam, a village in northeastern Thailand, dug out their local pond. Amid the topsoil they found some pottery, ceramics, and—to their surprise—an alligator skull.Finding Uhura’s Confidence in Strange New Worlds | io9 InterviewResearchers initially identified the skull as that of Alligator sinensis, the critically endangered Chinese alligator. But today, a different team of researchers posit that the skull is around 200,000 years oldand belongs to an extinct species of alligator. The team’s…

Photograph of specimen PMO 219.250. Credit: Engelschiøn et al. PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0New research reveals that sulfur minerals that make fossils in the Norwegian archipelago are especially well-suited to radiography.X-ray analysis has led to the categorization of a previously-unidentified marine reptile fossil discovered in Edgeøya, Svalbard. The research was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.  The study, conducted by Victoria S. Engelschiøn of the University of Oslo and her team, suggests that this method could…

David Sneddon’s trouble with federal agents started at a booth where he was selling pythons, red-tailed boas and rattlesnakes at Repticon, a reptile trade show in South Carolina.A customer inspecting his Mojave sidewinders took Sneddon’s phone number. Sneddon had no idea the man was an undercover informant for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.For the next 18 months, federal agents surreptitiously recorded all of the informant’s phone conversations with Sneddon and intercepted all of their texts as they arranged…

Adult and young of the ichthyosaur species Shonisaurus popularis chase ammonoid prey 230 million years ago, in what is now Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, Nevada, U.S.A. Credit: Gabriel UguetoFor many years, researchers have been studying a state park in Nevada, but despite their efforts, the reason for the high number of ichthyosaur deaths in the area some 230 million years ago remains a mystery.Blue and humpback whales, along with other marine giants of today, regularly undertake long migrations to reach waters where…

Illustration: Hank SharpeYou wouldn’t want to swim in Late Cretaceous seas. If you’ve seen the first Jurassic World movie, you’ll recognize a mosasaur as the creature that leapt from the water to eat a great white shark. That film may have exaggerated the real size of mosasaurs, but the effect is genuine: some species could reach terrifying lengths. These reptiles spent their lives in the water, but they breathed air. They had fins, long tails, mouths full of teeth, and could be anywhere from 10 to 50 feet in length.…