4.5.10

fossil of the weekend! #67

a rather lovely original skull of a champsosaur, the "crocodile lizard" which is the perfect name for this critter. despite its crocodilian appearance, champsosaurs were a type of lizard like reptile that independantly reentered the water and evolved very similar characteristics to crocs. a perfect example of convergent evolution, where two animals living the same life style tend to evolve similar (but yet subtley different) means of living that same life.

2 comments:

  1. How strange that convergent evolution was taking place even back then when vertebrate animals seemed to first begin evolving.

    The fossil looks lovely, looks like quite a precise predator.

    Marco.

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