New research published in eLife by researchers from the Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) and the University of Bristol (UB) moves back the moment of the radiation of squamates, a group of reptiles which includes lizards, snakes and worm lizards to the Jurassic, a long time before current estimates.
Although the Squamata is the largest order of reptiles, made up of over 10,000 different species, their evolutionary origins are not yet well understood.
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IMAGE: Modern and fossil lizards have many different tooth types. These are linked to different diets and can be used to assess dietary diversity through time in fossils. view more
Credit: Tom Stubbs
New research has revealed that the diets of early lizards and snakes, which lived alongside dinosaurs around 100 million years ago, were more varied and advanced than previously thought.
The study, led by the University of Bristol and published in
Royal Society Open Science, showed lizards, snakes, and mosasaurs in the Cretaceous period already had the full spectrum of diet types, including flesh-eating and plant-based, which they have today.
The diets of early lizards and snakes may have been more varied and advanced than previously believed, according to new research looking at their prehistoric teeth.
Scientists originally thought that squamates – the collective term for the 10,000 species of lizards and snakes – only began getting a taste for a much wider variety of food sources after dinosaurs became extinct.
But a study led by the University of Bristol, published in Royal Society Open Science, suggests they may have already possessed the full spectrum of diet types 100 million years ago, including flesh-eating and plant-based, seen today.
A team looked at fossil teeth and jaws from the Cretaceous period, between 145-66 million years ago.