The new species, Carbonodraco lundi, was a lizard-like predator that scampered about an ancient swamps, snatching and stabbing insects and other prey. Its name means 'coal dragon.' (Henry Sharpe/Carleton University)
CBC has a story about an interesting new species of ancient parareptile. Named Carbonodraco lundi, this animal lived about 306 million years ago in what is now Linton, Ohio. This is the same time period as the famous fossils from Illinois' Mazon Creek biota. The details were recently published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. The paper's lead author is Arjan Mann, a PhD candidate at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. You may remember him from some recent posts about Mazon Creek animals in May 2019, June 2019, and August 2019.
A unique fossil that is "literally a black piece of coal" found in the dump of a 19th-century coal mine is revealing new insights about life before the rise of dinosaurs. It has also unseated a fossil found by a P.E.I. boy as the oldest known species of an ancient group called the "parareptiles."
The new species, Carbonodraco lundi, was a small, lizard-like predator that scampered about in ancient swamps, snatching and stabbing insects and other prey with a sharp pair of fangs.
The animal, which was about 25 centimetres long from nose to tail, lived more than 306 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period in what is now Linton, Ohio, according to a new study by researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa published recently in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The first part of its name, given by Emily McDaniel, an undergraduate student and co-author of the paper, means "coal dragon," because of the fossil's unique form and its prominent fangs.
Unlike most fossils, which are typically embedded in rocks like shale, limestone or sandstone, this one was "literally a black piece of coal," said Arjan Mann, a PhD candidate at Carleton University and lead author of the report. He said that type of fossil is "very unique."
It was found in the dump of a coal mine operated by the Ohio Diamond Coal Mine Co. by paleontologist Richard Lund of the Carnegie Museum, for whom the species is also named.
