Pat Holroyd and co-authors describe a new species of giant lizard in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The fossil jaw bones of this lizard have been in the UCMP collection since the 1970s, but it took a while for them to be recognized as something special. The specimens are from an herbivorous lizard that lived in the warm climate of Asia 40 million years ago. Dubbed Barbaturex morrisoni, this lizard was much bigger than the largest herbivorous lizards alive today. The unique traits of this lizard indicate that a warmer climate may have enabled gigantism via increased floral productivity and metabolic rates.

Read the press release at the UC Berkeley Newscenter.

Read the full paper at Proceedings of the Royal Society B.