Adriosaurus
Encyclopedia
Adriosaurus is an extinct genus
of aquatic lizard
that lived about 95 million years ago. It was snake-like and grew 10 to 12 inches. This is the first fossil record of vestigial limbs in lizards, and gives scientists a glimpse back to the time when terrestrial lizards evolved to be limbless and returned to their watery origins.
Cladogram
based on Palci and Caldwell (2010a), Caldwell and Palci (2010b):
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of aquatic lizard
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
that lived about 95 million years ago. It was snake-like and grew 10 to 12 inches. This is the first fossil record of vestigial limbs in lizards, and gives scientists a glimpse back to the time when terrestrial lizards evolved to be limbless and returned to their watery origins.
Cladogram
Cladogram
A cladogram is a diagram used in cladistics which shows ancestral relations between organisms, to represent the evolutionary tree of life. Although traditionally such cladograms were generated largely on the basis of morphological characters, DNA and RNA sequencing data and computational...
based on Palci and Caldwell (2010a), Caldwell and Palci (2010b):