Ardeosaurus
| Ardeosaurus Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Fossil specimen | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | †Ardeosauridae |
| Genus: | †Ardeosaurus Meyer, 1860 |
| Type species | |
| †Homeosaurus brevipes Meyer, 1855
| |
| Species | |
| |
Ardeosaurus is an extinct genus of basal lizards, known from fossils found in the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Plattenkalk of Bavaria, southern Germany. It was originally thought to have been a species of Homeosaurus.
Ardeosaurus was originally considered to be a distant relative to modern geckos, and had a similar physical appearance. Evans and colleagues, however, showed it in 2005 to be a basal squamate outside the crown group of all living lizards and snakes.[1] A subsequent study conducted by Simões and colleagues in 2017 corroborated its initial proposed phylogenetic placement, indicating that Ardeosaurus was a stem-gekkotan.[2] It was around 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long, with a flattened head and large eyes. It was probably nocturnal, and had jaws specialised for feeding on insects and spiders.[3]
References
- ^ Evans, S. E., Wang, Y., & Li, C. (2005). The early Cretaceous lizard genus Yabeinosaurus from China: resolving an enigma. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 3, 319-335.
- ^ Simões, T.R.; Caldwell, M.W.; Nydam, R.L.; Jiménez-Huidobro, P. (2017). "Osteology, phylogeny, and functional morphology of two Jurassic lizard species and the early evolution of scansoriality in geckoes". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 180 (1): 216–241. doi:10.1111/zoj.12487.
- ^ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-84028-152-1.
 | This article about a prehistoric lizard is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article related to a Jurassic reptile is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |