Fossil of Jesus Lizard Relative Found in Wyoming

Posted on July 19, 2015

A 48-million-year-old lizard fossil discovered in Wyoming has been identified as an ancient relative of the Jesus lizard. Jesus lizards - or Jesus Christ lizards - are named for their ability to run over water on two legs as the National Geographic video clip below shows. They belong to the Corytophanidae group. The new species has been named Babibasiliscus alxi.

Modern relatives of the Jesus lizard live in an area stretching from central Mexico to northern Colombia. Wyoming was a tropical habitat when Babibasiliscus alxi was alive. It was about two feet long and may have skimmed the surfaces of its ancient watery habitat.

Jack Conrad from American Museum of Natural History is the author of the study. He says B. alxi was likely active during the day and spent most of its time in trees. The lizard has a ridge of bone on its skull that would have provided shade for its eyes and given it an angry look. It had small teeth with three points on each tooth. The lizard's diet would have included snakes, other lizards, fish, insect and plants. Conrad speculates that the lizard's large cheekbone meant it could have managed to eat even larger prey items.

Conrad says in a statement, "Given our current period of global climate fluctuation, looking to the fossil record offers an important opportunity to observe what is possible, and may give us an idea of what to expect from our dynamic Earth."

A research paper on the ancient lizard can be found here in the journal, PLoS One.

ANIMALS