Prehistoric Komodo Dragon Relative Discovered Near Thessaloniki

Unique conditions wrong the sediments prevented the bones from being afloat destroyed. Credit: AMNA

Fossil grounds confirms that a gigantic reptile, a show lizard akin to the modern Komodo Dragon, lived astir 4 cardinal years agone successful the country of Megalo Embolo adjacent Thessaloniki.

This important paleontological find and recognition were made arsenic portion of a caller survey by postgraduate pupil Hara Drakopoulou, whose enactment was supervised by a squad of experts, including George Lazaridis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki’s Komodo Dragon relative: A archetypal for the region

The tract has been nether systematic probe by the AUTh Geology Department for decades. Credit: AMNA

“This is the archetypal beingness of this taxon for this circumstantial determination and this peculiar clip period,” noted Lazaridis, speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

Lazaridis explained that the Megalo Embolo tract has been nether systematic probe by the AUTh Geology Department for decades, yielding galore fossils present housed successful the department’s museum. The tract is particularly uncommon due to the fact that its findings day backmost to the Pliocene geological epoch, specifically ranging from 4.2 to 3.2 cardinal years ago, representing a unsocial snapshot of past fauna.

Drakopoulou’s postgraduate thesis successfully identified the fossils that Lazaridis had initially unearthed a decennary ago. The value of the find lies successful the fantabulous preservation of the reptile bones and the information that it is the archetypal recorded lawsuit of this benignant of giant show lizard successful Megalo Embolo.

Evidence of a antithetic climate

The findings day backmost to the Pliocene geological epoch, specifically ranging from 4.2 to 3.2 cardinal years ago. Credit: AMNA

According to Lazaridis, the attraction of well-preserved fossils astatine Megalo Embolo suggests that unsocial conditions wrong the sediments prevented the bones from being afloat destroyed.

The ongoing technological excavation, supervised by Professor Kostopoulos, has unearthed a divers postulation of fossils from the area, including:

• Numerous different reptiles, specified arsenic elephantine tortoises and snakes.
• Mammals, including primitive forms of horses (Hipparion).
• Carnivores, mastodons, and rhinoceroses—species that are present extinct successful the Greek region.

“These animals unrecorded successful wholly antithetic climates today, which indicates that the clime astatine that clip was wholly different, apt warmer and with antithetic biology conditions,” Lazaridis concluded, emphasizing the site’s worth successful reconstructing Greece’s heavy history.

Related: Crocodiles, Cobras, Giant Lizards Once Inhabited Greece’