Drepanosaurus Fossils Reveal It Had A Massive Terrifying Finger

The newly recovered Drepanosaurus fossils showed that the said small reptile had the terrifying finger, in which the second digit of its forelimb had a huge claw. The fossils were found at the Hayden Quarry in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

The study was printed in the journal Current Biology on September 29, 2016. The researchers examined the 212-million-year-old Drepanosaurus arm fossils, according to Science Explorer.

Adam Pritchard, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University said that this creature stretches the bounds of what they think can evolve in the limbs of four-footed animals. He further said that Drepanosaurus appears to be a sort of chameleon-anteater hybrid, which is really bizarre for the time and possesses a totally unique forelimb.

Strange #reptile #fossil #puzzles #scientists #science #socialmedia #Drepanosaurus   https://t.co/LTR7iNMYK4 pic.twitter.com/VWr5AIBdkf

— Leila (@worldnewsJ) September 30, 2016

Dr. Pritchard described the reptile with extremely massive arms and forearms and very muscular. Its index finger is huge than any other fingers and supports its gigantic claw, which is the most massive bone of the entire arm, according to BBC News.

Mostly, the tetrapods that are four-limbed animals with a backbone has forearm made up of two, elongate and parallel bones are known as the radius and the ulna. On the other hand, the Drepanosaurus has radius and ulna that are not parallel. Its ulna is flat and crescent-shaped bone and the two wrist bones that meet the end of the ulna are longer than the radius instead of short.

Dr. Pritchard explained that the bone contacts indicate that the enlarged claw of Drepanosaurus could have hooked into insect nests. He further explained that the entire arm could then have been powerfully retracted to tear open the nest. He added that this movement is just the same to the hook-and-pull digging of living anteaters, which also eat insects.

Drepanosaurus is a reptile that existed during the Triassic Period. It belongs to a genus of Drepanosauridedae, a group of diapsid reptile with prehensile tails. They are also insectivore and inhabited in a coastal environment in Italy and in the streamside environment in the Midwestern United States.