AI Article Synopsis
- Four heteropod lizard trackways from the Hasandong Formation in South Korea are identified as the world's oldest lizard tracks, named Sauripes hadongensis.
- The trackways primarily consist of small pes tracks, averaging around 22.29 mm long, with characteristic curved digit imprints and a distinct separation of the smaller fifth digit.
- The study suggests these tracks indicate lizards were capable of bipedal movement early in their evolution, evidenced by features like a long stride length and digitigrade (walking on toes) prints.
Article Abstract
Four heteropod lizard trackways discovered in the Hasandong Formation (Aptian-early Albian), South Korea assigned to Sauripes hadongensis, n. ichnogen., n. ichnosp., which represents the oldest lizard tracks in the world. Most tracks are pes tracks (N = 25) that are very small, average 22.29 mm long and 12.46 mm wide. The pes tracks show "typical" lizard morphology as having curved digit imprints that progressively increase in length from digits I to IV, a smaller digit V that is separated from the other digits by a large interdigital angle. The manus track is 19.18 mm long and 19.23 mm wide, and shows a different morphology from the pes. The predominant pes tracks, the long stride length of pes, narrow trackway width, digitigrade manus and pes prints, and anteriorly oriented long axis of the fourth pedal digit indicate that these trackways were made by lizards running bipedally, suggesting that bipedality was possible early in lizard evolution.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5814403 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20809-z | DOI Listing |
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