ArticleCommunications biology2020
Discovery of the oldest South American fossil lizard illustrates the cosmopolitanism of early South American squamates.
Article in Communications biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolutionary Rate Incongruences in Squamates Reveal Contrasting Patterns of Evolutionary Novelties and Innovation.Systematic biology · 2026Article
- A new late Cretaceous squamate from Patagonia sheds light on Gondwanan diversity.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- The affinities of the Late TriassicRoyal Society open science · 2023Article
- Evolutionary origins of the prolonged extant squamate radiation.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Article
- Sphenodontian phylogeny and the impact of model choice in Bayesian morphological clock estimates of divergence times and evolutionary rates.BMC biology · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Squamates have an extremely long evolutionary history with a fossil record that extends into the Middle Triassic. However, most of our knowledge of their early evolutionary history is derived from Laurasian records. Therefore, fundamental questions regarding the early evolution of squamates in the Southern Hemisphere, such as the origins of the extremely diverse and endemic South American fauna, remain unanswered. Here, we describe a new lizard species that represents the oldest fossil squamate from South America, demonstrating that squamates were present on that continent at least 20 million years earlier than previously recorded. The new species represents the first occurrence of the extinct squamate family Paramacellodidae in South America and displays an unusual limb morphology. Finally, our findings suggest early South American squamates were part of a much broader distribution of their respective clades, in sharp contrast to the high levels of endemicity characteristic of modern faunas.
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