Jump to content
science

New Australian fossil lizard unearthed


FfFfFfFF

Featured Posts

FfFfFfFF

newaustralia.jpg

Some of Australia's most famous animals—wombat, platypus, kangaroos and the extinct marsupial tiger thylacine—have been traced back to their fossil ancestors in remarkable finds in central South Australia.

Now a remote expedition to a large inland salt lake in 2017 has sifted through remains unearthed in Namba Formation deposits to describe a tiny new skink, an ancestor of Australia's well-known bluetongue lizards—to be named in honor of world-renown Flinders University lizard researcher Professor Mike Bull.

1-newaustralia.jpg

The new species, unveiled in the Royal Society's Open Science today, is described as Australia's oldest—a 25 million-year-old skink named Proegernia mikebulli after the late Flinders University Professor Mike Bull.

"These lizard fossils owe their discovery to the patient sorting of tiny bones," says lead author, vertebrate palaeontologist Flinders University Associate Professor Trevor Worthy. "A teaspoon holds hundreds of tiny bones—all revealed in translucent splendor under a microscope."

Fossil---944x522.jpg2-newaustralia.jpg

Source

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...