#I come to science popularization #【2022 Paleontology New Knowledge】Chinese fossils decipher the mystery of the origin of the monitor lizard family!
The monitor lizard is no stranger to everyone, it is the largest reptile on the earth besides crocodiles and turtles, and the Komodo dragon can reach 3 meters in length and weigh up to kilograms.
The genus is actually a large family, with as many as 80 species, including the Familiar Komodo dragon and the Varanus sparnus, which is only 23 centimeters long, so it has a very high diversity. All monitor lizards share a common ancestor, and there are multiple hypotheses about the origin of the genus Varanidae, where the genus is located, that of Asian origin, African origin, and Gondwana origin.
In 2008, Chinese paleontologists found a lizard fossil in the Liguan Basin of Hubei Province, which is closely related to the genus of monitor lizards, but is more primitive than the existing genus of monitor lizards, so after research, paleontologists were named Archaeovaranus in 2022, the model species name is Archaeovaranus lii, and the species name is in honor of the late paleontologist Professor Li Chuankui of the mainland. The research paper was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B on 7 February 2022 and is a cover article.
The Archaeopteryx is about 1 meter long, lived in the Eocene period 53 million years ago, and its body shows the typical characteristics of the monitor lizard, but there are also many special features, such as the odospheric tube under the frontal bone is not closed, the posterior edge of the orbit is closed by the yoke bone and the posterior orbital bone, there are two rows of small teeth on the palate surface, and the opening of the shoulder strap is reduced. Studies have shown that the Archaeopteryx is a member of the backbone of the family Macrolidae, and its discovery is a strong proof that the monitor lizard family probably originated in Asia!
Figure 1, a restoration of the Li's Archaeopteryx monitor lizard published on the cover of the magazine
Figure 2, Tetralogicos Lee's orthotype specimen IVPP V 22770
Figure 3, Phylogenetics of monitor lizards
Figure 4, Geographical distribution of fossils of monitor lizards
Figure 5, Komodo dragon
Figure 6, Dampier Monitor Lizard
Figure 7, the ancient monitor lizard, a former giant in the genus Monitor Lizard
Figure 8: Comparison of body sizes of different species in the genus Monitor Lizard
Figure 9, the world distribution of monitor lizards today
#Paleontology ##2022古生物新知 #
论文：Dong, Liping; Wang, Yuan-Qing; Zhao, Qi; Vasilyan, Davit; Wang, Yuan; Evans, Susan E. (2022-03-28). "A new stem-varanid lizard (Reptilia, Squamata) from the early Eocene of China". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 377 (1847): 20210041. doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0041.
Pictures 1-4 are from the public account of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, invaded and deleted
