Gecko that survived dino disaster found by Slovak-led team

Approximately 66 million years ago three quarters of the earth’s plant and animal species were wiped out. Widely accepted to be the result of an asteroid impact with our planet, mammals, birds, lizards and, perhaps the most well-known victims of the event, non-avian dinosaurs, were killed in the catastrophe.

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But a recent fossil find suggests that among those that survived the devastation was a previously unknown species of geckos, an animal most usually associated with its ability to climb vertical surfaces and move across ceilings.

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The fossil was found in south-west France in 2023 by an international team that included Slovak palaeontologist Andrej Čerňanský from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava.

He talked to the Slovak Spectator about the discovery.

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Surprising find

The fossil is approximately 50 million years old and dates back to the Palaeogene era which ran from 66 million years ago to 23 million years ago. This period is also known as the older Tertiary.

Earth at the time was a vastly different place.

"The global climate was very warm, the warmest in the last 200 million years. On most continents, the forests were similar to those of South America now. Palm trees grew in Antarctica, and in what is today Canada, far beyond the Arctic Circle, alligators and turtles lived. There was no ice at the poles, so the ocean level was higher. Europe was an archipelago and many areas were covered by the sea," says Čerňanský.

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