THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-University of Alberta - Tiago Simoes MANDATORY CREDIT

EDMONTON — Scientists say they have identified the world’s oldest lizard fossil — a discovery that sheds light on the evolution of lizards and snakes. An analysis of Megachirella wachtleri identifies the tiny creature as the closest thing we know to the ancestor of all lizards and snakes, says Tiago Simoes, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta, who led the study published today in the journal Nature. The 240-million-year-old fossil, Megachirella wachtleri, is the most ancient ancestor of all modern lizards and snakes, known as squamates, according to researchers including those from the University of Bristol in the UK. The fossil, along with data from both living and extinct reptiles -- which involved anatomical data drawn from CT scans and DNA -- suggests the origin of squamates is even older, taking place in the late Permian period, more than 250 million years ago. Tiago Simões, lead author and PhD student from the University of Alberta in Canada, said: "The specimen is 75 million years older than what we thought were the oldest fossil lizards in the entire world and provides valuable information for understanding the evolution of both living and extinct squamates." “This discovery provides valuable information for understanding the evolution of both living and extinct squamates.”

These days, there are about 10,000 species of lizards and snakes in the world, twice as many as mammals. Squamates are among the most diverse and widespread groups of creatures on the planet, but scientists know surprisingly little about their early evolutionary origins. "Our new understanding of Megachirella is but a point in ancient time, but it tells us things about the evolution of lizards that we simply cannot learn from any of the 9,000 or so species of lizards and snakes alive today," co-author Michael Caldwell from the University of Alberta said in a statement. Originally found in the early 2000s in the Dolomites Mountains of Northern Italy, researchers considered it an enigmatic lizard-like reptile but could not reach conclusive placement, and it ramained nearly unnoticed by the international community. The discovery was only possible with a comprehensive collection of data that's painstakingly assembled over the years, which is described by the university as the "largest reptile dataset ever created."
Paleontologists at the University of Bristol announce, through the Nature journal, the discovery of the world's oldest lizard fossil, estimated to be 240 million years old. The fossil, Megachirella wachtleri, is the most ancient known ancestor of all modern lizards and snakes.