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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-63832928

I collected thousands of micro Squamate (lizards, legless lizards and snakes) specimens from anthill matrix from my sons’ Eocene/Oligocene, White River Group, M&M Ranch in Nebraska in 2016 and 2017 that I donated to the Smithsonian Institution. I spent over 3,000 hours over a year and a half picking the specimens from the anthill matrix. All of the squamate specimens have been with a squamate researcher in Germany since late 2017/early 2018. Unfortunately Covid and two other major projects that the researcher was working on, a major Messel Pit publication and a climate paper, delayed the study of my specimens. However, based upon recent communications with the researcher, the study of these squamate specimens should begin in earnest this summer. Because my specimens closely span the Eocene/Oligocene boundary in Nebraska, the researcher is eager to use these specimens to describe in practice his climate theories and how climate affected the evolution of squamate species. I just had a major publication, Korth Boyd Person Anderson 2022 Fossil mammals from ant mounds situated on exposures of the Big Cottonwood Creek Member of the Chadron Formation latest Eocene early Oligocene Sioux County Nebraska, published this May on the mammal micro specimens from the M&M Ranch, that I donated to the South Dakota School of Mines Geology Museum, and look forward to a major publication on these squamate specimens. Below I’ll show a few of the donated specimens and hopefully use this thread to update the progress of the study and eventually the progress of the publication. Below are a few pictures of the anthills that the Squamate specimens came from. The Squamate researcher currently has specimens from 19 different anthill sites in the flats (latest Eocene to early Oligocene) of the M&M Ranch. Below are Squamate specimens from several of the anthill sites, so you can see the large quantity of specimens that I found from each anthill site: A few pictures of the lizard Specimens. Lizard skull cap: Lizard premaxilla: Lizard jaws: Lizard osteoderms. Glyptosaur osteoderms. These are the most common shape found. Note the variety of colors. Note these are not Peltosaurus per the researcher. Additional Glyptosaur (Not 100% sure of this ID)osteoderms of different shapes: Another species Osteoderm: A few pictures of some amphisbaenian (legless lizard) specimens. Amphisbaenian jaw pieces: Amphisbaenian vertebrae: Snake skull pieces and jaw pieces are rarely found as fossils because of their fragile nature. Snakes are typically described and identified by their vertebrae. Snake vertebrae: I also sent over 200,000 (number estimated based on weight and weight of 100 specimen samples) cranial and post cranial bone pieces/fragments that I could not recognize to the squamate researcher. He picked several thousand squamate cranial and post cranial bone specimens from these bone pieces/fragments that will also be part of his study. Below is a picture of these bones picked from a single anthill site, so you can see the quantity of these bones. Marco Sr.

I am making a book showing evreyone that dinosauria is part of squamata. You will realize all of you are wrong when it comes to dinosaurs (thats how good it will be), I want to challenge pre concived notions and fill them with new ones. If you want to have a conversation with me that would be great!

Interesting article in the NYT (New York Times) today on a fossil lizard called Megachirella. You may need subscription to view. However, they usually allow a certain number of free viewings per month. You might include this in yours. Cheers. Megachirella article

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/may/30/worlds-oldest-lizard-fossil-forces-rethink-of-reptile-family-tree