lizard

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This Jurassic Lizard May Be Ancestor to Snakes
It Wasn't a Snake, but
It Had Fangs Like One
NEW STUDY
Oct 2, 2025 10:00 AM CDT

It Wasn't a Snake, but It Had Fangs Like One

Jurassic find on Skye sheds light on the origins of snakes, lizards

(Newser) - Buried in the rocks of Scotland's Isle of Skye, scientists have uncovered a 167-million-year-old reptile with snakelike fangs, revealing a surprising new branch in the ancient family tree of lizards and snakes. The well-preserved fossil, among the most complete Jurassic lizard fossils discovered to date, has been identified...

The Fossil in Front of Him Looked Eerily Like Another

Fossil slab split in half a century ago reveals a new species, the oldest known tree-dwelling reptile

(Newser) - A chance encounter in a London museum has led to the identification of a new prehistoric species, thanks to the keen eye of paleontologist Victor Beccari. While examining reptile fossils at the city's Natural History Museum, Beccari noticed a skeleton that looked strikingly familiar. His memory of a...

These Critters Outlasted Dino-Killing Asteroid, Still Thrive

DNA study reveals ancient origins, resilience of the night lizard

(Newser) - A new study sheds light on some unlikely survivors of the asteroid impact that wiped out most dinosaurs 66 million years ago: night lizards. According to research published Wednesday in Biology Letters , these small reptiles—found today in parts of North and Central America—managed to persist despite living...

How'd Iguanas Get to Fiji? Looks Like a Raft Made of Plants
Mystery of How Iguanas
Got to Fiji May Be Solved
NEW STUDY
Mar 23, 2025 1:30 PM CDT

Mystery of How Iguanas Got to Fiji May Be Solved

Research suggests lizards floated to remote islands from North America on a vegetation raft

(Newser) - Researchers have long wondered how iguanas got to Fiji, a collection of remote islands in the South Pacific. They thought maybe they'd scurried there through Asia or Australia before volcanic activity pushed Fiji far away. But new research published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

No, This Creature Wandering Florida Isn't a Gator

Florida woman's video of nearly 6-foot-long monitor lizard in Sarasota County goes viral

(Newser) - A mother-daughter car ride in Florida's Sarasota County led to quite a sighting last month. McClatchy News reports that Renee Aland was driving in the southwest city of North Port on May 20 when she did a "double take" at something she spotted along the side of the...

It's Not Truly Winter in Florida Until the Iguanas Start Falling

Cold snap in Sunshine State has temporarily paralyzed lizards, causing them to drop from trees

(Newser) - The weather forecast for the next few days is out in the Sunshine State, and it's an unusual but not completely foreign prediction. "*FALLING IGUANAS* possible this weekend in Southwest Florida," a WINK meteorologist warned Thursday on social media, citing a phenomenon that often happens when Florida'...

4-Foot-Long Lizard Is Spreading in Southeast US

Hardy, invasive tegu appears to have begun its spread in south Florida

(Newser) - Wildlife authorities are asking Americans to be on the lookout for a dog-sized, egg-hunting lizard spreading across the southeastern US. The Argentine black-and-white tegu, which reaches up to 4 feet long, is believed to have spread through south Florida after escaping captivity or being intentionally released more than a decade...

Huge Lizard That Terrified Neighbors Finally Caught

Florida authorities say it's an escaped pet

(Newser) - Florida authorities have caught a huge lizard that has terrified residents of a suburban Miami neighborhood for months, the AP reports. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Thursday the Asian water monitor lizard measures more than 8 feet long. The lizard is an escaped pet. It was first...

Trader Joe's Kale Came With Nasty Surprise

'Lizards are not the green I was looking for'

(Newser) - "Lizards are not the green I was looking for," says a Trader Joe's shopper in Washington, DC, who got quite the shock Tuesday when she found a dead lizard inside her bag of pre-washed kale. "It was a back and forth between denial and horror,"...

Hacked Texas Road Sign Blinks Message About Trump

He's probably been called worse than a 'shape shifting lizard'

(Newser) - Electronic construction signs in the Dallas area appear to have been hacked, displaying messages calling Donald Trump a reptile and imploring early morning commuters to take a day off work, the AP reports. The portable signs along Interstate 30 and elsewhere flashed various messages early Tuesday, including "Donald Trump...

How Worm Lizards Managed to Get Across the Oceans

Ancient creatures apparently surfed on plant matter

(Newser) - You may not be familiar with worm lizards, but they've actually done quite well for themselves: The 180 living species of amphisbaenians, as they're called, live on five continents, Nature World News reports, and they've been around for a very, very long time. So long, in fact,...

3 New Kinds of Pocket-Sized 'Dragons' Found

Andes cloud forests yield spiky, colorful lizards

(Newser) - Even in the year 2015, and even with widespread destruction of the world's wilderness, zoologists who look hard enough can still find new species of dragons—the dwarf kind, at least. Researchers combing the cloud forests of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru have uncovered three new kinds of...

Scientists Discover New Legless Lizards

And nope, they are not snakes

(Newser) - You may think the pictures look like snakes or worms, but they're not: Those are legless lizards, four new species of which were discovered in California recently. Unlike snakes, the lizards spend most of their lives underground, in an area about the size of a small table, LiveScience reports—...

Extinct 'Lizard King' Named After Doors Singer

Jim Morrison honored with 'Barbaturex morrisoni'

(Newser) - Scientists recently found that a 6-foot, 60-pound lizard that lived 36 million to 40 million years ago was the largest plant-eating lizard ever to have walked the Earth, so they gave it a fitting moniker: Barbaturex morrisoni, a play on Jim Morrison's "Lizard King" alter ego. The lizard...

Extinct Toothy Lizard Named After Obama

Obamadon gracilis disappeared with the dinosaurs

(Newser) - President Obama's toothy grin inspired researchers to name a newly discovered species of prehistoric lizard after him. Obamadon gracilis, a small, insect-eating lizard found in northwest Montana, went extinct along with the dinosaurs after a giant asteroid hit Earth around 65 million years ago. "The lizard has these...

Dinosaurs Were Much Skinnier: Scientists

New weight-estimation technique is shedding pounds off the ancient lizards

(Newser) - Dinosaurs were skinnier than we thought. Using advancements in scanning and computing, scientists have developed a new technique for estimating the weight and size of fossilized creatures. The more accurate method shows that the giant lizards were not nearly as chubby as paleontologists once believed, reports Discovery News via MSNBC...

Mini-Chameleon Discovered in Madagascar

Inch-long Brookesia micra the result of island dwarfism

(Newser) - A tiny island off the coast of Madagascar is home to the smallest chameleon ever discovered. Scientists believe Brookesia micra, which is just over an inch long, is the result of a double case of "island dwarfism," in which island species shrink as they evolve to adjust to...

Komodo Dragons Use Venom to Kill

(Newser) - Australian scientists have discovered that the world’s largest lizard packs a lethal venom in its bite, the Guardian reports. MRI scans of an ailing Komodo dragon revealed venom glands in the mouth that had never before been documented. The dragons’ poison sends victims into shock by triggering a sudden...

Komodo Dragons Kill Man
 Komodo Dragons Kill Man 
Mar 24, 2009 3:57 AM CDT

Komodo Dragons Kill Man

Fruit-picker mauled by giant lizards after falling out of tree

(Newser) - A pair of Komodo dragons fatally mauled a fruit-picker in eastern Indonesia, reports AP. The lizards attacked the man after he fell out of a tree on the island of Komodo, according to authorities. Fewer than 4000 of the carnivores remain in the wild, and attacks on humans are rare,...

Treats Banned, Komodo Dragons Get Nasty

Ban on food offerings 'angers' hungry lizards

(Newser) - Komodo dragons in an Indonesian park are increasingly attacking humans, and villagers who share their habitat say environmentalist policies are to blame, reports the Wall Street Journal. Inhabitants of Komodo National Park have traditionally left deer and sheep for the carnivorous lizards, the largest in the world. But new laws...

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