According to a new study, an extinct reptile's oddly shaped chompers, fingers, and ear bones could tell us a lot about the resilience of life on Earth.
The 250-million-year-old reptile, known as Palacrodon, fills in an important gap in our understanding of reptile evolution. A mass extinction event wiped out most of the plant and animal species on the planet.
"We now know that Palacrodon comes from one of the last lineages to branch off the reptile tree of life before the evolution of modern reptiles," said a PhD student in Yale's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. The most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history happened after Palacrodon.
The extinction event that occurred was called the Permian-Triassic event. It killed off 70% of the plants and 85% of the fish.
The details of how a large number of reptile species rebounded from the extinction event are not clear. Researchers have spent decades trying to fill in the gaps in our understanding of key adaptations that enabled lizards to flourish after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Some of those questions might be answered by Palacrodon.
She and her colleagues had to see the reptile in person.
Skull fragments from fossils found in South Africa and Arizona have been the source of information about Palacrodon. Palacrodon wasn't included in most scientific analyses of reptilian evolution because of the limited information gleaned from those fossils.
A new analytical approach was brought to bear by the authors of the new study.
The most complete Palacrodon specimen was analyzed using computed tomographic scanning and microscopes. The lab at Yale is well-known for its innovative use ofCT scanning and microscopes to create 3D images of fossils. They did field work in South Africa and the southwestern U.S.
The researchers were able to get characteristics of the reptile's teeth using the technology. They said that Palacrodon's teeth were best suited for grinding plant material and that the reptile could occasionally climb or cling onto vegetation.
Palacrodon's unique teeth and other features suggest it was interacting with plant life. This shows the early rebound of plants and the rebound of the environment after the mass extinction.
There is a need for further examination of fossils from the time period just after the extinction event, according to the study.
More information: Kelsey M. Jenkins et al, Re‐description of the early Triassic diapsid Palacrodon from the lower Fremouw formation of Antarctica, Journal of Anatomy (2022). DOI: 10.1111/joa.13770
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