Researchers have discovered fossil remains of odd worm lizards that look like snakes with no legs and closely related to lizards.
The complete skill of the ancestor shows that the strange reptile fossil is just 11 million years old, according to LiveScience.com.
The skeleton of the fossil was found in Spain, and is only 11.2 millimeters long. The creature belongs to a new species Blanus mendezi.
The creature belongs to a family known as blanids, which includes the worm lizards that are seen across a number of locations in Europe, according to Arnau Bolet, study researcher at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) in Barcelona.
"Their fossil record was until now limited to isolated and usually fragmented bones. Thus, the study of a complete fossil skull more than 11 million years old was an unprecedented opportunity." Bolet said to Live Science.
Worm lizards are found across the world, though most of the species live in Arabian Peninsula, South America and Africa. Some of the creatures have underdeveloped legs but a majority of them are limbless, which makes them look like earthworms.
The skull was discovered in 2011 from sediments in the Vallès-Penedès Basin in Spain's Catalonia region. The fossil was uncovered when Manel Méndez, a technician at the ICP was separating the dirt from remnant when he found a pinkish, clumpy rock.
The skull is covered by a concretion of carbonate rock hardened around it like cement.
Méndez "immediately realized that what he had found was a small vertebrate skull, a rather exceptional finding, because screen-washing techniques mostly retrieve disarticulated bones and isolated teeth." said Bolet, according to Live Science.
Removing the rock crust from the fossilized skull without damaging was a great challenge for the researchers, despite the fact that they were used to working with small fossils. Since they were having so much trouble, they used technology called Computed Tomography (CT) scanning, which is commonly used in hospitals.
Researchers were able to study a three-dimensional digital model of the skull by using the technology. They studied the specimen in detail, which showed that the creature was approximately 5.8 mm at its widest spot, belonged to an unknown species, and had 20 teeth, according to Live Science.
The skull of the specimen however looked similar to a worm lizard skull. This caused them to believe the species represents the oldest known western group of lizards.
"One of the things that became evident during this study was that the osteology of even living species of Blanus is still not well-known. At the same time, this precludes a proper identification of fossil specimens at the species level, because variation within species has been barely studied." Bolet said.
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?