PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — Researchers have discovered fossils of a tiny burrowing reptile among a vast expanse of petrified wood in eastern Arizona.
The new species has been named Skybalonyx skapter, a part of a group known as drepanosaurs from the Triassic Period, about 220 million years ago.
Petrified Forest National Park outside Holbrook is considered one of the premier places to study plants and animals from that period, sometimes known as the dawning age of dinosaurs.
The researchers say the ancient reptiles are strange because of morphologies that include enlarged second claws, bird-like beaks and tails with claws. They likely looked like a cross between an anteater and a chameleon.