The reptile is named Opisthiamimus gregori. It looks like a lizard, but like New Zealand’s tuatara, it is not one. Lizards are squamates, an order of reptiles that includes snakes and worm lizards.

Further study of the find could help reveal why this animal’s ancient order of reptiles were winnowed down from being diverse and numerous in the Jurassic to just New Zealand’s tuatara surviving today ...

They shaped its branches by using genomic data from more than 1,000 species of squamates (the order of reptiles that includes snakes and lizards) to chart how these scaly critters changed over time.

Lizards are ancient creatures. They were around before the dinosaurs and persisted long after dinosaurs went extinct. We’ve now found they are 35 million years older than we thought they were.

Tuatara are “rare” reptiles and “the last survivors of an order of reptiles that thrived in the age of the dinosaurs,” according to the conservation department. They are “New Zealand’s ...

Smithsonian researchers have discovered a new extinct species of lizard-like reptile that belongs to the same ancient lineage as New Zealand’s living tuatara. A team of scientists, including the ...