Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of trogonophid amphisbaenian (worm lizard) from fossilized specimens found in Tunisia.
Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi lived in what is now Africa during the Eocene epoch, some 47 million years ago.
The new species belongs to Trogonophidae, a small family of limbless, carnivorous, lizard-like reptiles within the clade Amphisbaenia.
“Amphisbaenians are a charismatic group of fossorial squamates, with bizarre morphological features and extreme anatomical modifications,” said lead author Dr. Georgios Georgalis from the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals at the Polish Academy of Sciences and his colleagues.
“In particular, their unique skeletal anatomy has attracted and puzzled researchers since the 19th century.”
“Before the advent and broad acceptance of phylogenetic systematics, amphisbaenians were considered to be the third major group of Squamata, together with Serpentes and the paraphyletic ‘Lacertilia’.”
“Recent phylogenetic analyses, however, have placed them as the sister group of lacertid lizards, a topology that has been supported by both molecular and combined morphological and molecular evidence: a name, Lacertibaenia, was even proposed for the clade Amphisbaenia + Lacertidae.”
“Amphisbaenians have a relatively rich fossil record across the Cenozoic of Europe and North America, coupled with a few Neogene and Quaternary occurrences from South America, a few Palaeogene, Neogene, and Quaternary occurrences from Africa, a very few Neogene occurrences from the Arabian Peninsula, and a very few occurrences from the Neogene of southwestern Asia.”
“Trogonophidae are a rather distinctive group of amphisbaenians that are today distributed in northern and north-central Africa (including Socotra Island, Yemen) and the Middle East,” they added.
“Four living genera are currently recognized, i.e. Agamodon, Diplometopon, Pachycalamus, and the type genus,…
Read the full article here
