Nature & Environment
Ancient Giant Lizard Named After 'The Doors' Singer Jim Morrison
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Jun 05, 2013 08:48 AM EDT
An extinct giant lizard that roamed the Earth 40 million years ago in the hot tropical forests of South East Asia has been named in honor of "The Doors" rock singer Jim Morrison.
The 6-foot long lizard, weighing up to 60 pounds, was identified from a fossilized jaw bone, and has been named Barbaturex morrisoni, which means lizard king. The genus name Barbaturex means 'bearded king'. The findings were produced by a team of U.S. paleontologists led by Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"I was listening to The Doors quite a bit during the research," Head said. "Some of their musical imagery includes reptiles and ancient places, and Jim Morrison was of course 'The Lizard King,' so it all kind of came together."
Based on an analysis made by the paleontologists, this is one of the biggest known lizards that has ever lived on land. It competed with other mammals for food and other resources. This new giant lizard from Myanmar offers interesting and important hints on the evolution of plant-eating reptiles and their association with global climate as well as competition with other mammals.
Present-day plant-eating lizards like iguanas and agamids are very small when compared to the large mammal herbivores. Komodo dragons, which are the largest lizards, are restricted to islands that don't have much of mammal predators. It still remains a mystery whether lizards are limited in size by competition with mammals or whether temperatures of modern climates play a major role.
Head explains that B. Morrisoni existed in an environment that had both carnivorous and herbivorous mammals some 40 million years ago, when the Earth was hot and there was no ice at the Poles and there was high atmospheric carbon dioxide content. With the creature being the largest of all the mammals, it shows that competition or predation by mammals did not hamper its development into a giant.
"If we were to raise global temperatures at a natural pace and preserve natural, healthy habitats, we could end up with the evolution of giant lizards, turtles, snakes and crocodiles. But we're changing the atmosphere so fast that the rate of climate change is probably faster than most biological systems can adapt to. So instead of seeing the growth and spread of giant reptiles, what you might see is extinction," Head said.
The findings will be published this week in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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First Posted: Jun 05, 2013 08:48 AM EDT
An extinct giant lizard that roamed the Earth 40 million years ago in the hot tropical forests of South East Asia has been named in honor of "The Doors" rock singer Jim Morrison.
The 6-foot long lizard, weighing up to 60 pounds, was identified from a fossilized jaw bone, and has been named Barbaturex morrisoni, which means lizard king. The genus name Barbaturex means 'bearded king'. The findings were produced by a team of U.S. paleontologists led by Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"I was listening to The Doors quite a bit during the research," Head said. "Some of their musical imagery includes reptiles and ancient places, and Jim Morrison was of course 'The Lizard King,' so it all kind of came together."
Based on an analysis made by the paleontologists, this is one of the biggest known lizards that has ever lived on land. It competed with other mammals for food and other resources. This new giant lizard from Myanmar offers interesting and important hints on the evolution of plant-eating reptiles and their association with global climate as well as competition with other mammals.
Present-day plant-eating lizards like iguanas and agamids are very small when compared to the large mammal herbivores. Komodo dragons, which are the largest lizards, are restricted to islands that don't have much of mammal predators. It still remains a mystery whether lizards are limited in size by competition with mammals or whether temperatures of modern climates play a major role.
Head explains that B. Morrisoni existed in an environment that had both carnivorous and herbivorous mammals some 40 million years ago, when the Earth was hot and there was no ice at the Poles and there was high atmospheric carbon dioxide content. With the creature being the largest of all the mammals, it shows that competition or predation by mammals did not hamper its development into a giant.
"If we were to raise global temperatures at a natural pace and preserve natural, healthy habitats, we could end up with the evolution of giant lizards, turtles, snakes and crocodiles. But we're changing the atmosphere so fast that the rate of climate change is probably faster than most biological systems can adapt to. So instead of seeing the growth and spread of giant reptiles, what you might see is extinction," Head said.
The findings will be published this week in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone