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Night lizards still exist near the Gulf of Mexico, in the region where the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs struck, along with areas further south, found in southern Central America.(Image credit: Kevin Venegas Barrantes via Shutterstock)ShareShare by:
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Intriguing night lizards pulled through the massive asteroid impact which brought the age of dinosaurs to a close 66 million years ago, despite inhabiting areas quite close to where it hit, according to a fresh investigation.
Because of an updated assessment of evolution, researchers came to understand that these small lizards, making up the family Xantusiidae, were inhabiting the Gulf of Mexico area both preceding and following the asteroid’s strike in what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. This positions night lizards as the unique group of land-dwelling vertebrates identified to have made it through so close to the area of impact, and still possess existing members living in the same place today.
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“They would’ve been everywhere all over the rim of the asteroid incident,” study supervisor Chase Brownstein, a Ph.D. candidate within the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology located at Yale University, revealed to Live Science.
What methods did night lizards use to stay alive during all of the decimation? Researchers aren’t positive, though Brownstein mentioned that these creatures possess sluggish metabolisms, meaning that they wouldn’t be required to consume food very often.
The scientists shared their discoveries this past Wednesday (June 25) inside the journal Biology Letters.
Night lizards reach growth of just a few inches in total length. Frequently very secretive, these lizards reside inside specific microhabitats, such as within the gaps in rocks and dense greenery, or underneath the bark of trees and timbers.
Some earlier investigations implied that night lizards’ “crown” collection — the collection which possesses the most current common ancestor of all existing night lizards — came to be during the age of the dinosaurs, which should have signified these creatures persevered through the K-Pg devastation. This new piece of research tested that supposition.
Brownstein along with associates rebuilt the origins of the three existing night lizard genera (Lepidophyma, Xantusia and Cricosaura). They took advantage of molecular clock dating to gauge the time at which night lizards evolved, depending upon their genetic changes and the rate at which genetic changes come about inside DNA over time.
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The scientists discovered that the most recent shared forefather of existing night lizards manifested during the Cretaceous nearly 90 million years ago and also that night lizards have been present within North America and Central America from roughly that time onward, before the asteroid struck 66 million years ago, according to the study.
The recent discoveries imply that a pair of night lizard descent lines endured the asteroid crash. One of such descent lines subsequently brought about Xantusia, which differs from the southwestern section of the U.S. inside of Mexico, and Lepidophyma, which differs through portions of North America and Central America. The subsequent descent line subsequently gave rise to Cricosaura along with its sole species, Cuban night lizards (Cricosaura typica), living in Cuba.
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Night lizards did not represent the exclusive creatures to pull through the K-Pg mass dying-out incident. We would not occur today assuming a portion of the mammal ancestral tree had not lived through the asteroid collision. Avian dinosaurs (birds), fish along with numerous other creatures survived, too. Even so, night lizards serve as the sole identified enduring collection of ground vertebrates which have remained endemic to — exclusively existing inside of — North America and Central America from the time the asteroid collided.
Brownstein took note that several descent lines of turtles along with other lizards around this area perhaps survived the asteroid similar to the ways in which night lizards (scientifically named xantusiids) did. Nevertheless, those additional descent lines possess since faded away.
“The issue ends up being that they just aren’t found there any longer,” Brownstein communicated. “Therefore, what ends up being intriguing involves xantusiids having persevered and therefore remained endemic within this area.”
Patrick PesterSocial Links NavigationTrending News Writer
Patrick Pester acts as the trending news writer functioning at Live Science. One can find his writing documented on various science websites, for instance, BBC Science Focus along with Scientific American. Patrick retrained to work as a journalist following dedicating his initial career to employment within zoos and preservation of wildlife. Cardiff University awarded him with the Master’s Excellence Scholarship to be able to study, and it was here that he finished up a master’s degree relating to international journalism. He also holds another master’s degree relating to biodiversity, evolution as well as conservation in action taken from Middlesex University London. At any time that he is not crafting news reports, Patrick investigates the trade with human remains.
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