Two tiny species of lizard, fish that lived 100 million years ago discovered by researchers
CTV
Two newly identified tiny species of fish and lizard that existed 100 million years ago have been detailed in a study.
A team of researchers published their work Thursday in the journal PeerJ, in which they describe a lizard named Sciroseps pawhuskai and a fish named Anomoeodus caddoi.
"The fish and lizard represent material, though small and fragmentary, that preserves enough detail to call them new species," Joseph Frederickson, a vertebrate paleontologist and co-author of the study, said in a news release. "The lizard jaw is specifically interesting because normally fossils are limited to small and broken bits, while the specimen we describe in this paper is most of a complete lower jaw."
The fossils were discovered in southwestern Arkansas at a site known as the Holly Creek Formation, an area that apparently once had a rich ecosystem.
"The Holly Creek Formation is interesting because few fossils have been described in publications, even though it has produced dinosaur fossils in the past," Frederickson said. "Formations like these help us better understand how the continent was connected and the diversity of animals alive during the Early Cretaceous Period."
