Researchers name a new species of reptile from 212 million years ago
Researchers name a new species of reptile from 212 million years ago
An extinct reptile related to crocodiles that lived 212 million years ago in present day New Mexico has been named as a new species, Vivaron haydeni, in a paper published this week by Virginia Tech’s Department of Geosciences researchers.
This is an artist's rendering of a Vivaron haydeni that lived more than 200 million years ago. CREDIT Image by Matt Celeskey
An extinct reptile related to crocodiles that lived 212 million years ago in present day New Mexico has been named as a new species, Vivaron haydeni, in a paper published this week by Virginia Tech’s Department of Geosciences researchers.
Leading the paper that names the previously unknown animal is undergraduate researcher Emily Lessner of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a double major in the departments of Geosciences and Biological Sciences, both in the Virginia Tech College of Science. Lessner’s paper detailing the fossil of the animal – jawbones, other skull fragments, and hip-bones – appears in this week’s open science journal, PeerJ.
Vivaron haydeni was found in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, in 2009 during an excavation co-led by Sterling Nesbitt, then a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, and now an assistant professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech. Some of the fossils remained sealed in protective plaster jackets until 2014, when they were transported to Blacksburg for study. That’s where Lessner enters.
At the time a sophomore majoring in Biological Sciences with a minor in Geosciences, she was seeking an independent research experience that piqued her interest and provided a challenge. She found it with the Paleobiology Research Group in Derring Hall.
More:
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2016/09/researchers-name-a-new-species-of-reptile-from-212-million-years-ago/112623
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