squamata
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Critically Endangered Pink Iguana Babies Found in the Galápagos
Cracks bloom along the ovoid surface of an egg shell. First a small head peaks out, then the rest of a long, thin, scaled body. A pink iguana emerges. No, it’s not a convoluted gender reveal — but it does signal the birth of hope for a critically endangered reptile. Researchers have found nesting sites…
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This Ancient Reptile Is Not a Lizard, Don’t Call It a Lizard
150 million years ago, a prehistoric reptile unlike modern lizards slinked around what is now Wyoming. An ancient rhynchocephalian, the insect-eating animal’s discovery could shed light on the persistence of its living relative, the tuatara.
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Intriguing Fossil Reptile Offers Clues to the Origin of Snakes and Lizards
Twenty years since it was found in Argentina, a fossil of a 231.4-million-year-old lepidosaur has been described in detail by palaeontologists. This animal has features place it before the split between lizards, snakes, and sphenodonts (a branch of reptiles that today only includes the strange tuatara). The fossilised skull recently underwent CT scanning, and an…