Paleontologists have unearthed the world’s oldest squamate fossil — 240-million-year-old specimen of a species called Megachirella wachtleri — from a site in the Dolomite Mountains, Italy. Megachirella wachtleri. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna. Megachirella wachtleri is the most ancient ancestor of all modern squamates (lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians). The specimen — a well-preserved partial skeleton — is at least 75...