Undergraduate student Catherine Klein and her supervisors at the University of Bristol (UOB) recently identified a reptile fossil that was unearthed at Hanson Aggregates’ Woodleaze quarry in Gloucestershire, England as belonging to a new species of the clevosaurus, also known as the ‘Gloucester lizard’.
Clevosaurs, which have been found throughout the ancient world, were said to have lived about 205 million years ago alongside dinosaurs during the late Triassic period.
The recent quarry discovery was not the first clevosaur fossil to have been found, but Mike Benton, professor of vertebrate palaeontology at UOB’s School of Earth Sciences, said it contained enough differences – particularly in the jaws – to warrant its allocation to a new species.
UOB research associate Dr David Whiteside explained that the new reptile, said to be the smallest of the clevosaurs with an average length of 11cm, had specially adapted teeth that allowed it to tackle prey far larger than would usually be expected for such a small animal.
What the new clevosaurus species – Clevosaurus sectumsemper – did have in common with its previously identified relatives were “self-sharpening” properties in its teeth, which would cut past each other very precisely to create extremely sharp ridges of bone.
“The species name sectumsemper means ‘always cut’, and was chosen to reflect this,” Klein explained. “It is also a nod to the Harry Potter character Severus Snape, who made a spell called ‘sectumsempra’, perhaps meaning sever forever.” Sectumsempra was a curse said to inflict sword-like wounds, some of which would never heal.
Woodleaze quarry is located near Tytherington quarry, another site that has yielded prehistoric bones – that of the thecodontosaurus dinosaur.
A UOB press release acknowledged the significance of the limestone quarries of the region, stating that their sediment-filled caves and fissures could provide “unique insight into the animals that scuttled at the feet of the dinosaurs” and that they were of “worldwide importance”.
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