New species of Oculudentavis discovered - and it's definitely a lizard

[Newt]

Reconstruction by Stephanie Abramowicz



Oculudentavis naga holotype


I'm sure most of you remember last year's kerfuffle over Oculudentavis khaungraae, the supposed avian skull found in Myanmar amber. Well, a new specimen, representing a new species (O. naga) has been described, and it's definitely a lizard, not a bird or any sort of dinosaur. This new specimen has some postcranial remains as well as scaly skin and other soft tissue (including rostral crest and gular folds) associated.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/14/world/amber-lizard-not-small-dinosaur-scn/index.html


And the paper (open access): https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0960-9822%2821%2900738-7


A big part of the original story was its exposure of the "blood amber" trade, which is a brutally exploitative business run by Myanmar's despotic military to help fund its misdeeds. According to the paper, this specimen was purchased before the military took over the amber mines.

[ITdactyl]

Awesome find, awesome read.
A paper that detailed and eye-friendly and open access to boot - well, hooray for change.

But that press release image (to me) is the new "This is fine" paleoart meme.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for posting. Kind of amazing the first paper got through peer review.

Also, really adorable lizard.

[Faelrin]

Good to see this specimen was obtained ethically, and glad to see it gives more insight on what type of animal this genus actually was.

[stargatedalek]

Thanks for posting. Kind of amazing the first paper got through peer review.

Also, really adorable lizard.

To be fair, it is an incredibly bird like lizard. Even with the whole neck here and more soft tissues on the head it's still easy to mistake for a bird at a glance.

[Halichoeres]

I mean, sure. And the peer reviewers were no doubt operating on an assumption of good faith. I guess what I should be decrying is that the authors who knew it was a lizard prior to publication made no move to retract or amend it.