Latest ‘early fossil squamate’ paper stumbles due to taxon exclusion
Benson et al 2025
attempted to nest a completely disarticulated and partial fossil squamate from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland, Breugnathair elgolensis (Figs 1, 2).
The authors described the specimen (Figs 1, 2) as, “among the oldest relatively complete fossil squamates.”
Good thing they said, ‘relatively.’
Figure 1. Breugnathair elgolensis in situ. This is one of the most incomplete and disarticulated fossils considered in this blogpost.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair-elgolensis-in-situ588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair-elgolensis-in-situ588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-94728″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair-elgolensis-in-situ588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Breugnathair elgolensis in situ. This is one of the most incomplete and disarticulated fossils considered in this blogpost. ” width=”584″ height=”434″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair-elgolensis-in-situ588.jpg?w=584&h=434 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair-elgolensis-in-situ588.jpg?w=150&h=111 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair-elgolensis-in-situ588.jpg?w=300&h=223 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair-elgolensis-in-situ588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Breugnathair elgolensis in situ. This is one of the most incomplete and disarticulated fossils considered in this blogpost.
The authors wrote,
“Breugnathair is placed in a new family, Parviraptoridae, an enigmatic group with potential importance for snake origins, that was previously known from very incomplete remains.”
Evidently Benson et al have a very low bar for what they consider, ‘incomplete’.
In 2023 Benson et al introduced this taxon in a SVP abstract,
covered in an earlier blogpost. “Benson et al reported on a Parviraptor-like squamate from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland. They wrote, “confident records of crown- or near-crown squamates are not known prior to the Middle Jurassic.”
In the LRT completely preserved protosquamates like Palaegama and squamates like Ascendonanus are known from the Late Permian. Parviraptor (Fig 6) is far from complete.
The authors reported,
“The specimen shows varanid-like gross cranial anatomy, with snake-like features restricted primarily to the teeth and tooth-bearing elements, and ‘lizard’-like body proportions with a short trunk and well-developed limbs and limb girdles.”
In the LRT varanids are derived squamates not related to snakes.
Putting this taxon aside,
let’s look at the phylogeny of reptiles presented by Benson et al 2025. It follows paleo textbooks in omitting (or lacking) several dozen pertinent taxa that are included in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa).
Benson et al failed to understand
the first dichotomy following the LCA, Silvanerpeton splitting the clade Reptilia into Archosauromorpha and Lepidosauromorpha. Instead Benson et al cherry-pick taxa that shuffle together these two clades under the false premise that Petrolacosaurus was the last common ancestor of all diapsid-grade reptiles.
When that shuffle happens the rib-glider, Coelurosauravus, between aquatic Claudiosaurus and Champsosaurus. This is only one of many untenable pairings – plus there is a general loss of resolution among many, if not most clades.
Someone among the 8 authors, editorial staff or referees should have raised their hand at these untenable results based on omitting pertinent taxa.
In the LRT, which minimizes taxon exclusion, the diapsid skull architecture appears twice, once with Petrolacosaurus and once with Lepidosauriformes.
The outgroup for the Squamata in Benson et al
is not determined. Seven unresolved clades vie for this honor.
That’s not a problem in the LRT, which includes more taxa.
Benson et al include the taxon Huehuecuetzpalli
but ail to link it with its LRT sisters, Macrocnemus and Tanystropheus.
Figure 3. What little remains of Breugnathair.skull reconstructed by the authors. Good job! This is the DGS method (using Photoshop) that English scientist, Darren Naish, attempted to discredit in 2012 and thereafter.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair.skull_.recon588.jpg?w=192″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair.skull_.recon588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-94734″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair.skull_.recon588.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. What little remains of Breugnathair.skull reconstructed by the authors. Good job! This is the DGS method (using Photoshop) that English scientist, Darren Naish, attempted to discredit in 2012 and thereafter.” width=”584″ height=”915″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair.skull_.recon588.jpg?w=584&h=915 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair.skull_.recon588.jpg?w=96&h=150 96w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair.skull_.recon588.jpg?w=192&h=300 192w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/breugnathair.skull_.recon588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. What little remains of Breugnathair.skull reconstructed by the authors. Good job! This is the DGS method (using Photoshop) that English scientist, Darren Naish, attempted to discredit in 2012 and thereafter. Note the pineal foramen is transitional between present and not present here.
Benson et al wrote,
“The parietals share features with early-diverging squamate groups, including the presence of a parietal foramen, which is absent in snakes and crown gekkotans, but present in many other reptiles including possible stem gekkotans and most other squamates.”
“also seen in the stem squamate Oculudentavis.”
In the LRT Oculudentavis is a late-surviving sister to Middle Triassic Cosesaurus, a taxon omitted from Benson et al.
FIgue 2. Skull and reconstruction of Chometokdamon by Evans et al. 2006.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/chometokadmon-skull588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/chometokadmon-skull588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-24730″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/chometokadmon-skull588.jpg” alt=”FIgue 2. Skull and reconstruction of Chometokdamon by Evans et al. 2006.” width=”584″ height=”480″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/chometokadmon-skull588.jpg?w=584&h=480 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/chometokadmon-skull588.jpg?w=150&h=123 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/chometokadmon-skull588.jpg?w=300&h=246 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/chometokadmon-skull588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. Skull and reconstruction of Chometokdamon by Evans et al. 2006.
The Breugnathair.skull is too incomplete to add to the LRT,
Even so, the skull does give the overall appearance of an Early Cretaceous gekko, like Chometokadmon (Fig 3).
Figure 4 Tetrapodophis after DGS tracing and reconstruction.
Benson et al wrote,
“We omitted the candidate stem snake Tetrapodopis amplectus from analyses due to substantial doubts about its anatomy and phylogenetic affinities.”
In contrast to Breugnathair Tetrapodophis (Fig 5) is complete and articulated.
Figure 1. Maxillae from several Mid-to-Late Jurassic snakes discovered by Caldwell et al. 2015, including Parviraptor, Diabolosphis and Portualophis.. These are compared to Lanthanotus, an extant limbed precursor to burrowing snakes, like Cylindrophis. Also shown are Eichstaettisaurus, a limbed varanid precursor to terrestrial snakes along with the skulls of Adriosaurus, an elongate limbed pre-snake and Pachyrhachis, a Late Cretaceous snake with vestigial hind limbs and no forelimbs or pectoral girdle.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg?w=216″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-17372″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Maxillae from several Mid-to-Late Jurassic snakes discovered by Caldwell et al. 2015, including Parviraptor, Diabolosphis and Portualophis.. These are compared to Lanthanotus, an extant limbed precursor to burrowing snakes, like Cylindrophis. Also shown are Eichstaettisaurus, a limbed varanid precursor to terrestrial snakes along with the skulls of Adriosaurus, an elongate limbed pre-snake and Pachyrhachis, a Late Cretaceous snake with vestigial hind limbs and no forelimbs or pectoral girdle.” width=”584″ height=”811″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg?w=584&h=811 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg?w=108&h=150 108w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg?w=216&h=300 216w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg?w=768&h=1067 768w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jurassic-fossil-snakes.jpg 946w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 6. Maxillae from several Mid-to-Late Jurassic snakes discovered by Caldwell et al. 2015, including Parviraptor, Diabolosphis and Portualophis.. These are compared to Lanthanotus, an extant limbed precursor to burrowing snakes, like Cylindrophis. Also shown are Eichstaettisaurus, a limbed varanid precursor to terrestrial snakes along with the skulls of Adriosaurus, an elongate limbed pre-snake and Pachyrhachis, a Late Cretaceous snake with vestigial hind limbs and no forelimbs or pectoral girdle.
Readers who build cladograms:
too many taxa is far better than too few. Add taxa and you, too, will have a tool that you can use to dispel myths and promote accurate models.
Figure 7. Subset of the LRT focusing on gekkos and snake origins.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lrtsubset.snakes.gekkos588.jpg?w=222″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lrtsubset.snakes.gekkos588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-94742″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lrtsubset.snakes.gekkos588.jpg” alt=”Figure 7. Subset of the LRT focusing on gekkos and snake origins. ” width=”584″ height=”789″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lrtsubset.snakes.gekkos588.jpg?w=584&h=789 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lrtsubset.snakes.gekkos588.jpg?w=111&h=150 111w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lrtsubset.snakes.gekkos588.jpg?w=222&h=300 222w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lrtsubset.snakes.gekkos588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 7. Subset of the LRT focusing on gekkos and snake origins.
Benson et al summed up Breugnathair this way:
“It displays a mosaic of anatomical traits that is not present in living groups, with head and body proportions similar to varanids (monitor lizards) and snake-like features of the teeth and jaws, alongside primitive traits shared with early-diverging groups such as gekkotans.”
In the LRT (subset Fig 7) gekkos and pre-snakes are sister clades, so this revelation comes as no surprise.
From the publicity – see below
“A Nature paper published today introduced to the world Breugnathair elgolensis, a reptilian creature from the Jurassic era with the short body and limbs of a gecko. But like its name, Gaelic for “false snake of Elgol,” its jaws and hooked teeth resemble that of modern-day pythons.”
References
Benson RBJ et al (7 co-authors) 2025. Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09566-y
Publicity – check out these headlines:
bbc.com/news/articles/cn82p1jy3eeo
amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/fossil-lizard
popsci.com/science/jurassic-snake-ancestor-scotland/
phys.org/news/2025-09-jurassic-reptile-fossil-discovery-blurs.html
newsweek.com/mysterious-jurassic-reptile-may-reveal-how-snakes-lost-their-legs-10810599
gizmodo.com/freaky-jurassic-reptile-is-a-weird-mix-of-snake-and-lizard-2000666322
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/latest-early-fossil-squamate-paper-stumbles-due-to-taxon-exclusion/
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