Discovery of the oldest South American fossil lizard illustrates the cosmopolitanism of early South American squamates

Abstract

Squamates have an extremely long evolutionary history with a fossil record that extends into the Middle Triassic. However, most of our knowledge of their early evolutionary history is derived from Laurasian records. Therefore, fundamental questions regarding the early evolution of squamates in the Southern Hemisphere, such as the origins of the extremely diverse and endemic South American fauna, remain unanswered. Here, we describe a new lizard species that represents the oldest fossil squamate from South America, demonstrating that squamates were present on that continent at least 20 million years earlier than previously recorded. The new species represents the first occurrence of the extinct squamate family Paramacellodidae in South America and displays an unusual limb morphology. Finally, our findings suggest early South American squamates were part of a much broader distribution of their respective clades, in sharp contrast to the high levels of endemicity characteristic of modern faunas.

Jonathas Bittencourt et al. report the discovery of a fossil lizard in South America dated to at least 130 mya, about 20 million years earlier than previously thought. This finding suggests early lizards in South America were much more broadly distributed than extant species in this region.