The short video is also worth watching.

>>Lizards and snakes belong to a family of animals called squamates, and today there are almost 10,000 different species slithering around the world’s deserts, backyards, forests and mountains. But who is the mother of them all? Scientists have now pinned the origins of this family on a 240-million-year-old fossil that fills in some of the long-time blanks in their early evolutionary history. <<

https://newatlas.com/mother-of-lizards-megachirella-ancient-fossil/54848

PermeateFree said:

The short video is also worth watching.

>>Lizards and snakes belong to a family of animals called squamates, and today there are almost 10,000 different species slithering around the world’s deserts, backyards, forests and mountains. But who is the mother of them all? Scientists have now pinned the origins of this family on a 240-million-year-old fossil that fills in some of the long-time blanks in their early evolutionary history. <<

https://newatlas.com/mother-of-lizards-megachirella-ancient-fossil/54848

It was here in the early 2000s that paleontologists discovered a beautifully preserved fossil resembling a lizard-like reptile, which was dubbed Megachirella wachtleri. But they couldn’t be certain of where, or if, it fit into the squamate family tree.

Now an international team of scientists have cracked the code. They did so by first assembling the largest reptile dataset ever created, and then used previously unavailable technologies to carry out micro CT scans of the fossil and create a high-resolution 3D model of its anatomy.

Nice work, the fossil looks a bit birdlike to me with that squat body, long leg, long neck and big head. I can see why, at 240 million years old, it was difficult to place on the tree.

Ladinian period. This was a time when the world was still recovering from the permian-triassic extinction.

Extinction 252 Ma
Woody trees back 246 Ma
Sponges and coal back 243 Ma
Corals back 240 Ma

mollwollfumble said:

Ladinian period. This was a time when the world was still recovering from the permian-triassic extinction.

Extinction 252 Ma
Woody trees back 246 Ma
Sponges and coal back 243 Ma
Corals back 240 Ma

Yes after a mass extinction event, new species evolve rapidly to fill all the niches vacated by those now extinct and to fill any newly created ones.

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

Ladinian period. This was a time when the world was still recovering from the permian-triassic extinction.

Extinction 252 Ma
Woody trees back 246 Ma
Sponges and coal back 243 Ma
Corals back 240 Ma

Yes after a mass extinction event, new species evolve rapidly to fill all the niches vacated by those now extinct and to fill any newly created ones.

I’m not so sure about that any more. Not now that I’ve realised that modern mammals and modern birds had diversified well before 66 Ma. A chart of both, for inctance, show evolution of new species at such a constant rate that the 66 Ma event isn’t visible.

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

Ladinian period. This was a time when the world was still recovering from the permian-triassic extinction.

Extinction 252 Ma
Woody trees back 246 Ma
Sponges and coal back 243 Ma
Corals back 240 Ma

Yes after a mass extinction event, new species evolve rapidly to fill all the niches vacated by those now extinct and to fill any newly created ones.

I’m not so sure about that any more. Not now that I’ve realised that modern mammals and modern birds had diversified well before 66 Ma. A chart of both, for inctance, show evolution of new species at such a constant rate that the 66 Ma event isn’t visible.

New species evolve when their environment changes, they must do so or die out, if the environment does not change there is little need for favorable mutations to advance via natural selection. Just because small mammals and birds existed before the KT event, this gave them the base from which to evolve into new species, numbering vastly more than before the mass extinction event. They could not do this to anywhere the same extent whilst there were vast numbers of dinosaurs wandering around looking for an easy meal.

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

Yes after a mass extinction event, new species evolve rapidly to fill all the niches vacated by those now extinct and to fill any newly created ones.

I’m not so sure about that any more. Not now that I’ve realised that modern mammals and modern birds had diversified well before 66 Ma. A chart of both, for inctance, show evolution of new species at such a constant rate that the 66 Ma event isn’t visible.

New species evolve when their environment changes, they must do so or die out, if the environment does not change there is little need for favorable mutations to advance via natural selection. Just because small mammals and birds existed before the KT event, this gave them the base from which to evolve into new species, numbering vastly more than before the mass extinction event. They could not do this to anywhere the same extent whilst there were vast numbers of dinosaurs wandering around looking for an easy meal.

That tallies with the Cambrian “explosion”, where new species appeared so suddenly that it’s virtually impossible to say which evolved from which.