A Glimpse into a Lost World

Trace

Captain Awesome
The oldest known specimen with chameleon like features has been discovered in a piece of amber from Myanmar in Southeast Asia. The fossil is dated to 100 million years ago and is 78 million years older than previously known chameleon fossils. In layman’s terms, these lizards were around when dinosaurs walked the earth! What is interesting about these fossils is that they show the iconic projectile tongue and hyoid bone (the bone that allows a chameleon to launch its tongue) but not the unique body shape or pincer-like feet we see on chameleons today. Due to the location where the fossils were found, the study also suggests that the common ancestor of modern day chameleons potentially originated outside of Africa!

Read more about the discovery here:

http://news.ufl.edu/articles/2016/03/worlds-oldest-chameleon-found-in-amber-fossil.php

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...-and-chameleons-perfectly-preserved-in-amber/

See a photo of the tongue here:
http://www.livescience.com/53948-lizards-trapped-in-ancient-amber.html

And for the science nerds, here is the official paper:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/3/e1501080.full
 
Great article!! It's amazing to think that our little guys are actually like little dinoaurs...and they really haven't changed that much in the last 100 million years. Thanks for sharing!!
 
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