Paleontologists Put The Bite On An Ancient Reptile From New England
Paleontologists Put The Bite On An Ancient Reptile From New England
March 23, 2018
Scientists have identified a new species of reptile from prehistoric Connecticut and, boy, does it have a mouth on it.
Named Colobops noviportensis, the creature lived 200 million years ago and had exceptionally large jaw muscles — setting it apart from other reptiles at the time. Even compared to the wide diversity of reptile species today, Colobops noviportensis had quite the bite.
“Colobops would have been a diminutive but plucky little beast, part of a little-known menagerie of small animals that lived among the first dinosaurs,” said Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, assistant professor and assistant curator in geology and geophysics at Yale, and senior author of a new paper about the discovery in the journal Nature Communications.
“Its tiny frame hid some big secrets,” Bhullar said. “Despite its lizard-like aspect, it is in fact an early branch-off of the lineage leading to dinosaurs and birds. Also, its little jaws could bite harder than anything else its size. Perhaps that big bite allowed it to feed on tough, armored prey impervious to weaker mouths.”
More:
https://scienceblog.com/499976/paleontologists-put-the-bite-on-an-ancient-reptile-from-new-england/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+%28ScienceBlog.com%29
