Fossils identified as new species of reptile

FOSSILS discovered in a quarry in south Wales have been identified as a new small species of reptile that lived 205 million years ago.

The species has been named Clevosaurus cambrica, the second part being Latin and referring to the fact it comes from Wales.

Emily Keeble, an undergraduate at the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, studied the fossils as part of her final year project for her palaeontology degree.

The fossils were collected in the Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry, close to Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, in the 1950s.

They belong to a new species of the so-called “Gloucester lizard” Clevosaurus, named in 1939 after Clevum, the Latin name for Gloucester.

Ms Keeble said: “The new species, Clevosaurus cambrica lived side-by-side with a small dinosaur, Pantydraco, and an early crocodile-like animal, Terrestrisuchus.

“We compared it with other examples of Clevosaurus from locations around Bristol and south Gloucestershire, but our new beast is quite different in the arrangement of its teeth.”

In the Late Triassic period, the hills of south Wales and the south west of England formed an archipelago that was inhabited with small dinosaurs and relatives of the Tuatara, a reptilian fossil from New Zealand.

The limestone quarries of the region have many caves or fissures containing sediments filled with the bones of small reptile species that scuttled at the feet of dinosaurs.

Ms Keeble was able to find a large amount of the Clevosaurus cambrica’s skeleton.

She scanned the blocks to make 3D reconstructions of the reptile’s skull, neck, shoulder and arm region.

Dr David Whiteside, of the University of Bristol, said: “The teeth of Clevosaurus cambrica were likely adapted to dice pieces of flesh, so we interpret this little critter as a predator, feeding on insects and other small animals.”

The research is published in the journal Proceedings Of The Geologists’ Association.