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Jaeger assumed the big tooth (a snout fang about 10.4 cm (4.1 in) long as preserved) belonged to a giant reptile and that the indented missing tip was a distinctive natural feature that, when viewed from above, resembled a nipple or teat with a small hole in the middle, which he expressed in the name Mastodonsaurus or "teat tooth lizard" (from ...
The brain of P. lujiatunensis is well known; a study on the anatomy and functionality of three specimens was published in 2007. Until the study, it was generally thought the brain of Psittacosaurus would have been similar to other ceratopsians with low encephalization quotients. Russell and Zhao (1996) believed "the small brain size of ...
For these, the "lizard model" was entirely abandoned: they would have had an upright stance and a high metabolism. This also meant that earlier size estimates had been exaggerated. By simply adding the known length of the vertebrae, instead of extrapolating from a lizard, Owen arrived at a total body length for Megalosaurus of 30 feet. In the ...
This contrast with the pleurodont condition found in the vast majority of lizards, where the teeth are attached to the inward-facing surface of the jaw. The teeth of the tuatara are extensively fused to the jawbone, making the boundary between the tooth and jaw difficult to discern, and the teeth lack roots and are not replaced during the ...
Lizard morphological and ecological diversity substantially increased over the course of the Cretaceous. [54] In the Palaeogene, lizard body sizes in North America peaked during the middle of the period. [55] Mosasaurs likely evolved from an extinct group of aquatic lizards [56] known as aigialosaurs in the Early Cretaceous.
[10] (p47) This covering arises from the Malpighian layer of the bird's epidermis, [10] (p47) growing from plates at the base of each mandible. [11] There is a vascular layer between the rhamphotheca and the deeper layers of the dermis , which is attached directly to the periosteum of the bones of the beak. [ 12 ]
It was a small, lizard-like animal, about 20 to 30 centimetres (7.9 to 11.8 in) long, with numerous sharp teeth indicating an insectivorous diet. [40] Other examples include Westlothiana (for the moment considered a reptiliomorph rather than a true amniote) [41] and Paleothyris, both of similar build and presumably similar habit.
Squamata (/ s k w æ ˈ m eɪ t ə /, Latin squamatus, 'scaly, having scales') is the largest order of reptiles, comprising lizards and snakes.With over 12,162 species, [3] it is also the second-largest order of extant (living) vertebrates, after the perciform fish.