A fossil discovered in Georgia has revealed that the tegu, now invasive in Florida, once roamed North America millions of years ago. The finding, published in the Journal of Paleontology, traces the lizard’s origins to the Middle Miocene epoch, long before its modern relatives arrived as pets. The study, led by researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History, highlights how climate and migration shaped the species’ brief stay in the region.
The breakthrough hinged on a single, half-inch vertebra unearthed in a clay mine near the Florida-Georgia border. Initially baffling scientists, the fossil was identified decades later as belonging to an ancient tegu, a discovery made possible by cutting-edge imaging and machine learning.
Jason Bourque, a fossil preparator at the museum, stumbled upon the vertebra in storage and spent years questioning its identity. “I’d come back to it repeatedly, wondering: Is it a lizard? A snake?” he said. The puzzle was solved when Bourque compared the fossil to 3D scans of modern tegu bones through the museum’s openVertebrate (oVert) project. Advanced algorithms analyzed over 100 vertebrae, confirming the fossil as a new species, Wautaugategu formidus.
The study suggests tegus migrated from South America during the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, a warm period when higher sea levels left much of Florida submerged. “They were here just for a blip,” Bourque noted, as cooling temperatures likely drove the species to extinction in the region.
“This AI-driven approach could revolutionize fossil identification,” said Edward Stanley, co-author and director of the museum’s imaging lab. “It opens doors to analyzing countless overlooked specimens worldwide.”
The discovery underscores the interplay between climate and species movement, while offering tools to accelerate paleontological research. Future digs along the ancient coastline may reveal more about these elusive lizards, and how their brief history parallels today’s invasive tegu populations.
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