Paleontologists discover new species called microsaur

Paleontologists have discovered a new species – a microsaur – from a 308-million-year-old fossil unearthed in the United States. In deference to its tiny size, researchers called it Joermungandr bolti after a giant sea serpent from Norse mythology.

Microsaurs were small, lizard-like animals that roamed the Earth well before dinosaurs made their appearance. They lived during the Carboniferous period, when the forebears of modern mammals and reptiles, called amniotes, first appeared.

Joermungandr had a two-inch long snake-like body with scales, and four short, plump legs. Scientists were astonished to discover that the fossil contained the animal’s skin. They also discovered a pattern of ridges similar to those found on the scales of modern reptiles that dig into the ground. The scale shape led them to hypothesise that Joermungandr burrowed as well.

“It would probably have been a head-first burrower, using its head to smack itself into the soil,” said lead study author Arjan Mann from Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.

Picture Credit : Google

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