triassic period Archives

Tiny Lizard Unlocks Evolution Clues

May 31, 2018 Lisa Mungovan

Scientists have recently discovered a 240 million year-old lizard! The Megachirella wachtleri is only 3 inches long, but it is the ancestor of all living lizards and snakes! The Triassic period fossil was found in the Dolomite mountains in Italy 15 years ago, but new technology has revealed the lizard’s monumental importance in understanding their evolution.

Relax and Take Over the Earth

February 11, 2018 Lisa Mungovan

Scientists have figured out that today’s 4,500 species of cockroaches probably shared a common ancestor in the Triassic period. They’ve been evolving for 235 million years! In order to spread all over the Earth, they just had to sit and wait. When the supercontinent, Pangea, split into today’s continents, cockroaches drifted to world domination.