PhD Student’s Stunning Fossil Puzzle Unlocks Mystery of a Lost Prehistoric Reptile Species
Ever stumble across something so familiar it practically winks at you from the dusty shelves of a museum? That’s exactly what happened to PhD student Victor Beccari while poking around reptile fossils at London’s Natural History Museum. Imagine his surprise when he spotted a fossil half that looked eerily like one he’d met before—sitting comfortably across the Channel in Frankfurt’s Senckenberg Natural History Museum! Now, here’s the kicker: those two lonely fossil halves, separated for who knows how long, turned out to be pieces of a brand-new species that lived alongside dinosaurs some 145 million years ago. Talk about a Jurassic reunion! This tiny six-inch climber, affectionately named Sphenodraco scandentis, is not just a cool find—it’s a doorway into the secretive world of tree-dwelling reptiles from the Jurassic period. Intrigued? You might never look at museum fossils the same way again. LEARN MORE
PhD student Victor Beccari was studying reptile fossils at London’s Natural History Museum when he saw something that looked oddly familiar: a specimen very similar to one he’d seen at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
Victor BeccariThe Natural History Museum housed one half of the fossil, which featured an imprint of most of the animal’s bones.
A new species of prehistoric reptile has been discovered — thanks to the work of a PhD student who reunited two fossil halves housed in different museums.
After bringing the two halves together, Victor Beccari discovered that this 145-million-year-old reptile that lived alongside the dinosaurs was previously unknown to science.
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