Trace
Captain Awesome
The oldest known specimen with chameleon like features has been discovered in a piece of amber from Myanmar in Southeast Asia. The fossil is dated to 100 million years ago and is 78 million years older than previously known chameleon fossils. In layman’s terms, these lizards were around when dinosaurs walked the earth! What is interesting about these fossils is that they show the iconic projectile tongue and hyoid bone (the bone that allows a chameleon to launch its tongue) but not the unique body shape or pincer-like feet we see on chameleons today. Due to the location where the fossils were found, the study also suggests that the common ancestor of modern day chameleons potentially originated outside of Africa!
Read more about the discovery here:
http://news.ufl.edu/articles/2016/03/worlds-oldest-chameleon-found-in-amber-fossil.php
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...-and-chameleons-perfectly-preserved-in-amber/
See a photo of the tongue here:
http://www.livescience.com/53948-lizards-trapped-in-ancient-amber.html
And for the science nerds, here is the official paper:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/3/e1501080.full
Read more about the discovery here:
http://news.ufl.edu/articles/2016/03/worlds-oldest-chameleon-found-in-amber-fossil.php
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...-and-chameleons-perfectly-preserved-in-amber/
See a photo of the tongue here:
http://www.livescience.com/53948-lizards-trapped-in-ancient-amber.html
And for the science nerds, here is the official paper:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/3/e1501080.full
