Ardeosaurus

Ardeosaurus
Temporal range: Tithonian
Fossil specimen
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Reptilia
Order:Squamata
Clade:Gekkonomorpha
Genus:†Ardeosaurus
Meyer, 1860
Type species
†Homeosaurus brevipes
Meyer, 1855
Species
  • †A. brevipes (Meyer, 1855)
  • †A. digitalellus Grier, 1914

Ardeosaurus is an extinct genus of basal lizards, known from fossils found in the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Plattenkalk of Bavaria, southern Germany.

Life restoration

Ardeosaurus was originally considered to be a distant relative to modern geckos, and had a similar physical appearance. Evans and colleagues, however, showed it in 2005 to be a basal squamate outside the crown group of all living lizards and snakes.[1] A subsequent study conducted by Simões anhd colleagues in 2017 corroborated its initial proposed phylogenetic placement, indicating that Ardeosaurus was a stem-gekkotan.[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

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ Simões, T.R.; Caldwell, M.W.; Nydam, R.L.; Jiménez-Huidobro, P. (2017). "Osteology, phylogeny, and functional morphology of two Jurassic lizard species and the early evolution of scansoriality in geckoes". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 180 (1): 216–241. doi:10.1111/zoj.12487.
  3. ↑ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 86. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.


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