Ancient Reptile Named After Harry Potter Spell

Posted on June 5, 2015

The fossil of an ancient species of reptile was discovered in a quarry in Gloucestershire. The fossil was identified by researchers from the University of Bristol as a new species. It lived 205 million years ago and had self-sharpening blade-like teeth.

The reptile has been named Clevosaurus sectumsemper. The sectumsemper portion of the name means "always cut" and was inspired by a dangerous spell made by Severus Snape called sectumsempra.

Catherine Klein, an undergraduate in Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, says in a statement, "The species name sectumsemper means 'always cut', and was chosen to reflect this. It is also a nod to the Harry Potter character Severus Snape, who made a spell called sectumsempra (perhaps meaning sever forever)."

The reptile is believed to have lived in a hostile environment due to a high occurrence of healed fractures found in the fossilized bones. The teeth of the reptile were sharpened due to a self-sharpening dentition that is also found in some other clevosaurs. The teeth were sharpened as they past each other with extreme precision. Clevosaurus sectumsemper was about 11 centimeters long (about 4 inches). It is the smallest known clevosaur species.

A research paper on the new species was published here in the journal, Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.


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