Discovered in amber lizards lived 99 million years ago

99 million years ago, many species of lizards lived in the tropical forests that were located where Myanmar is now located. Most have sunk into oblivion, leaving no trace or bones behind: dead small reptiles were quickly processed by the forest ecosystem. But some lizards became captives of the resin of conifers, which, petrified after millions of years, turned into what we now call amber. These unlucky representatives of their own appearance have become the most valuable material for modern scientists.

The fact is that scientists got access to twelve lizards imprisoned in amber. Previously, they were all in private collections, but now they are transferred to the American Museum of Natural History. This unexpected acquisition of the museum allowed to establish the missing stage in the evolution of the lizards.

“These remains told us a lot about the exceptional, but until recently unknown, species diversity of lizards in ancient tropical forests,” said Edward Stanley, one of the researchers who studied ancient lizards.
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“The remains are rare because of the delicate skin and thin bones of small lizards - all this is simply not preserved, especially in the tropics,” Stanley comments on the situation.

All the more unusual is the find that gave researchers the most valuable material for study. Not only bones and skin, but even the pigmentation was completely preserved. The finest structures, like the claws on the tips of the paws of the lizards, are also preserved; scientists are now studying the remains.



Using micro CT scanners and 3D printing, experts create models of the remains of lizards, and work with them without any problems, and not with the original material.

In amber found and the ancient chameleon. Until now, the most ancient ancestor of the chameleon was considered to be the fossilized remains of an animal that lived about 75 million years ago. In amber, however, even the fingers of an animal that lived 99 million years ago were preserved, on which scientists discovered structures characteristic of the living species of chameleons. Previously it was thought that these structures arose much later in time.

In general, these specimens showed that the species diversity in the tropical forests of the distant past was as rich as today.