First evidence of monitor lizards in Switzerland

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - After a chance discovery in the collection's repository, a Basel researcher provides the first evidence of the existence of monitor lizards in Switzerland. While working in the vertebrate fossil collection at Basel's Natural History Museum, paleontologist Bastien Mennecart's eye was caught by two teeth of a large lizard. The fossils come from near Langnau in the canton of Bern. The serrations on the teeth and their interiors are typical of monitor lizards. This is the first evidence that monitor lizards also lived in Switzerland 17 million years ago. The results of this discovery were published yesterday in the renowned scientific journal Swiss Journal of Geoscience. During his scientific work, paleontologist Bastien Mennecart discovered two remarkable incomplete teeth among the hundreds of small fossil bones and teeth in the vertebrate paleontological collection at the Basel Natural History Museum.