Joel Kontinen
Last year, a tiny fossil became big news. Trapped inside ancient amber, scientists thought they'd
found the skull of a minuscule,
hummingbird-like dinosaur with pointy
teeth, bulging eyes, and surprisingly robust bones.
It
was like no ancient bird or dinosaur ever discovered
before. That's because it was actually neither.
Here’s what I wrote about it then:
This is the standard view of birds or animals trapped
in amber found in Myanmar. This creature belonged to the group of dinosaurs that
according to evolutionists gave rise to modern birds.
Without the rest of the body, the scientists
can’t tell exactly how Oculudentavis is related to other
birdlike dinosaurs—or whether it could fly. But they suspect it belongs to a
group of relatively primitive birds, perhaps similar to Archaeopteryx and Jeholornis, species that lived between 150
million and 120 million years ago the researchers of a new study said.
However, this is all wrong. it was not a
dinosaur but a lizard, “A similar skeleton found in the same area now suggests the so-called
"eye tooth bird" (Oculudentavis khaungraae)
is, in reality, a lizard. Its long snout had simply been squashed over
time so that it resembled more of a beak..”
"Imagine
taking a lizard and pinching its nose into a triangular shape," explains Edward Stanley,
director of the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Source:
Cassella, Carly 2021. Once Mistaken For a Tiny Bird With
Teeth, This Fossil Is Now Officially a Lizard Science Alert 15.June..
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