A Tale of Two Lizzies

Lizards are the most diverse group of land-living vertebrates alive today. They thrive everywhere in the world, except at the poles. Yet a poor fossil record keeps the origins of the major lizard groups hidden.

Yale Ph.D. candidate Dalton Meyer will show us how 3D-imaging has brought new life to two fossil lizards from the American West and filled a gap in our understanding of two distantly related lizard groups. Hailing from 150 and 30 million years ago, each fossil tells us what these early lizards would have looked like and how their modern relatives have spread throughout the world.