World’s oldest lizard fossil stuns scientists after being unearthed in BRISTOL with remarkable detail still intact

AN ANCIENT lizard dating backmost 205million years has been confirmed to beryllium the "world's oldest" successful a caller study.

The fossilised reptile, which was unearthed successful a quarry adjacent Bristol, UK, has been preserved successful singular detail.

It's teeth are inactive successful tact aft each that time.

Named Cryptovaranoides microlanius, the lizard dates backmost to a clip erstwhile reptiles dominated the land, and molluscs ruled the sea.

It was the extremity of the Triassic period, and the opening of the Jurassic era, besides known arsenic the property of dinosaurs.

However, the tiny skeleton has been the root of overmuch debate.

Scientists person gone backmost and distant implicit the individuality of the specimen since the archetypal survey connected the fossil was published successful 2022.

Dr David Whiteside, pb writer of the archetypal survey that came retired in Science Advances, has addressed the disapproval successful a follow-up published successful Royal Society Open Science.

He confirmed "that the small Bristol reptile is so the world’s oldest modern-type lizard.”

The lizard has not lone been declared the oldest known lizard, but has pushed backmost the emergence of these animals by astir 30million years.

“We were truthful surprised, possibly adjacent shocked, that successful 2023 different squad of academics suggested that Cryptovaranoides was not a lizard oregon adjacent a lizard relative, but successful information an archosauromorph, much intimately related to crocodilians and dinosaurs,” co-author Professor Michael Benton said successful a statement.

The Bristol squad returned to the archetypal specimen, putting the tiny skeleton done different circular of X-ray and CT scans.

The results revealed that the skull, jaws, teeth, and limb bones showed Cryptovaranoides to beryllium a lizard, not an archosauropmorph. 

“The effect of each this had to beryllium tested by a phylogenetic analysis,” added Whiteside.

“This is wherever we codification hundreds of anatomical features in Cryptovaranoides and different modern and fossil lizards, arsenic good arsenic assorted archosauromorphs.

"We ran the investigation clip aft time, and it gave our archetypal result, that the small Bristol reptile is so the world’s oldest modern-type lizard.”