Ardeosaurus
Ardeosaurus Temporal range: Late Jurassic | |
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Fossil specimen | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Genus: | †Ardeosaurus Meyer, 1860 |
Type species | |
†Homeosaurus brevipes Meyer, 1855 | |
Species | |
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Ardeosaurus is an extinct genus of basal lizards, known from fossils found in the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Plattenkalk of Bavaria, southern Germany.
Ardeosaurus was originally considered to be a distant relative to modern geckos, and had a similar physical appearance, though more modern phylogenetic analysis has shown it to be a basal squamate outside the crown group of all living lizards and snakes.[1] On the other hand, a subsequent study conducted by Simões et al. (2016) indicated that Ardeosaurus was a stem-gekkotan, corroborating its initial proposed phylogenetic placement.[2] It was around 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long, with a flattened head and large eyes. It was probably nocturnal, and had jaws specialised for feeding on insects and spiders.[3]
References
- ↑ Evans, S. E., Wang, Y., & Li, C. (2005). The early Cretaceous lizard genus Yabeinosaurus from China: resolving an enigma. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 3, 319-335.
- ↑ Tiago R. Simões; Michael W. Caldwell; Randall L. Nydam; Paulina Jiménez-Huidobro (2016). "Osteology, phylogeny, and functional morphology of two Jurassic lizard species and the early evolution of scansoriality in geckoes". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. in press. doi:10.1111/zoj.12487.
- ↑ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 86. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.