47 million years ago, the largest worm lizard in the world lived.
Based on petrified specimens discovered in Tunisia, paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of trogonophid amphisbaenian, or worm lizard. Approximately 47 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch, Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi inhabited what is now Africa. The new species is a member of the clade Amphisbaenia's Trogonophidae, a small family of limbless, carnivorous, lizard-like reptiles. According to senior author Dr. Georgios Georgalis and his colleagues at the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals at the Polish Academy of ...