Researchers have found the first-known skull of a Mediterranean worm lizard.
In the past only fossil fragments of this creature have been found, a PLOS news release reported. The skull was found in Europe.
Most of what is known about the worm lizard's evolution has been discovered through molecular studies.
"The evolution of blanid amphisbaenians (Mediterranean worm lizards) is mainly inferred based on molecular studies, despite their fossils are common in Cenozoic European localities. This is because the fossil record exclusively consists in isolated elements of limited taxonomic value," the researchers stated in their study abstract.
The animal is a "limbless, scaled reptile and categorized in the genus Blanus in the Mediterranean," the news release reported, the news release reported.
Researchers have now discovered the first fossilized skull from this species. They believe the skull is from a previously-unknown species dubbed Blanus mendez.
The skull is 11.3 millimeters long and is believed to be 11.6 million years old, from the Middle Miocene. The find is the most complete fossil in this genus ever discovered.
The new species may have shown up after the extant groups of blanids from the East and the Western Mediterranean started to split.
In the new study the researchers described the fossil "integrated available molecular, paleontological, and biogeographic data to discover that both the general configuration of the skull and the teeth are in accordance with those of extant Blanus, B. mendezi" the news release reported.
"The use of CT-scan techniques applied to this superbly preserved worm lizard fossil skull has allowed an unprecedentedly detailed description for an early member of the family, providing insights into the evolutionary history of this poorly known group of reptiles," Arnau Bolet from Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont said in the news release.
The work was published in the June 4, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE , the news release reported.
