Lizard king thrived in ancient warm climate

Lizard king thrived in ancient warm climate

The herbivorous reptile of 40 million years ago was around 2 meters long

By Cristy Gelling, 17:38 PM June 4, 2013

A giant plant-eating lizard that lived 36 to 40 million years ago might have had a warm climate to thank for its impressive size, paleontologists say. They have named the species Barbaturex morrisoni for rock ’n’ roll singer Jim Morrison, who called himself the Lizard King.

In the 1970s, scientists found fossil teeth and skull fragments from the ancient lizard in Myanmar. A team led by Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, including one of the fossil’s original discoverers, has now...

Source URL: