Researchers working at rock outcrops in a former Cretaceous desert in South America have discovered a new species of extinct lizard that subsist 80 million age ago . Gueragama sulamericana , key inNature Communicationsthis week , annul what we know about lizard evolution .
While acrodontans ( who have dentition conflate to their jaws ) ruled the Old World , non - acrodontans thrived in the New World . This new species , Gueragama sulamericanafrom what ’s now Cruzeiro do Oeste in southern Brazil , is the first acrodontan find in South America . That mean both chemical group of ancient reptilian accomplish an telling worldwide distribution before the concluding break up of the supercontinent Pangaea .
" It ’s a missing link in the sense of the paleobiogeography and mayhap the origins of the group , so it ’s pretty proficient evidence to propose that back in the lower part of the Cretaceous , the southern part of Pangaea was still a sort of unmarried continental clod , " study co - authorMichael Caldwellfrom the University of Alberta said in astatement . " Guera " is native Brazilian Tupi - Guarani for " ancient " and " sulamericana " have in mind " from South America " in Portuguese . Its fond lower lower jaw is show to the right .
distribution of Late Cretaceous plants and beast reflect a time when Pangaea was still whole . With more than 1,700 species , the reptilian suborder iguania — which includes critters like iguanas , chameleons , Anolis carolinensis , and spiky tusk lizards — is one of the most diverse groups of lizards worldwide . With few exceptions , all iguanas are restricted to the New World , peculiarly between the southern U.S. and the southernmost tip of South America . Yet their airless relative , include Chamaeleon and bearded dragons , are all Old World coinage .
Gueragama sulamericanais southerly Pangaean in its origin . " After the fracture up , the acrodontans and chamaeleon chemical group dominated in the Old World , and the iguanid side rise out of this acrodontan linage that was leave alone on South America , " Caldwell say . South America stay on quarantined until about five million years ago , when it chance into North America . That ’s when we began to see a north - south exchange of plants and animal again . " It was kind of like a float Noah ’s Arc for a very tenacious time , about 100 million old age , " he added . " This is an Old World lizard in the New World at a clock time when we were n’t anticipate to find it . "
Image in the text : Tiago Simoes and Adriano Kury
