Ancient armoured animal leads to rethink of reptile evolutionary tree

A chunky, 1.5-metre-long armoured predator that lived some 250 million years ago may upend our understanding of reptile evolution.

Fossils of the novel species – named Prosaurosphargis yingzishanensis, because it was found in the Yingzishan quarry in Hubei province, China – were unearthed in 2019. The rocks in which the fossils were found indicate that the animal lived in salty lagoons. It was one of the larger marine reptiles on Earth at the time, says Andrzej Wolniewicz at the Hefei …