Scientists expose the bone structure hidden in the skin of Australian Monitor lizards

Under the scales of Australia’s famous monitor lizards (commonly known as Gonnas), scientists have discovered an unexpected secret: an invisible layer of Bonnie skin structure known as osteodymares. These structures, which have long been neglected, can get the key to understanding how these ancient crawling animals are not only living in the world’s toughest environment but also leading to development.

Results, published today Zoological Journal of Linn Society, Mark the first massive global study of osteodarms in lizards and snakes. Researchers from Australia, Europe and the United States were gathered with international cooperation, who used modern micro -CT scanning to examine nearly 2,000 2,000 creeping samples from the major museum collection at the Museum Victoria Research Institute.

“We were surprised to find Osteodram in 29 Australia Papuan Monitor Lizardi species,” said Raeable, a leading author and researcher at the Museum Victoria Research Institute and Australian National University. “This is a five -fold increase in known matters in Govana.”

Osteodarms are most commonly known as crocodiles, Armodloo, and even some dinosaurs such as stagosurus. But their job is a evolutionary mystery. Although they can provide protection, scientists are now suspected of supporting heat, movement and calcium storage during regeneration.

This new research suggests that osteodymares are much wider than the previous idea in lizards, which are found in half of the world’s lizard species.

The center of this discovery is the strength of the museum’s collections. Scientific institutions such as the Museum Victoria Research Institute play an important role in protecting biological diversity over time, which enables researchers to study species after the gathering.

Many samples used in this study were decades old, and in some cases were over 120 years old, but progress in imaging technology helped scientists uncover new insights without damaging the original material. These collections are not just archives, they are active tools for scientific discovery.

“What is about this search is that we think we know about the evolution of the crawling animals,” said Dr. Jean Mailwell, senior curator of the Museum Victoria Research Institute of Terrorist vertebrates. “This shows that these skin bones may be prepared in response to environmental pressure as the lizards have adapted to the challenging scenes of Australia.”

Until now, the presence of osteody in the monitor lizards was considered rare and was mostly limited to the famous Commodo dragon. But the discovery of their widespread presence in the Australo Papone Guinea opens new questions about how the lizards are complicated, survived and diverse throughout the continent.

This historical study not only tells a new chapter of the Australian dumb story, but also provides a powerful new dataset to find out how millions of years of evolution, structure and survival are connected to each other.