Video from National Geographic.
UINTA COUNTY — According to an article in Plos One, a fossilized lizard of the same family as the famed “Jesus Lizard” was discovered in Uinta County. The Jesus Lizard gets its name from the fact that it is so fast it can walk (run) on water. The modern day  Jesus Lizard and related species live in tropical Central and South America, but the article suggests a Euramerican/Laurasian origin.
The fossil was discovered in Uinta County Wyoming, in the Blacks Fork member of the Bridger formation. The fossil is believed to be from the late Early Eocene period. The Eocene Epoch is described as lasting from 56 to 33.9 million years ago and ends in what is called the Grande Coupure, an extinction event that may have resulted from meteors striking the earth in Siberia and what is now the Chesapeake Bay.
The new fossil species has been named Babibasilliscus alxi. The fossil is believed to be the oldest yet found of this family and Babi is Shoshone for “older male cousin” while Basiliscus is a corytophanis lizard. According to the article, the generic name is meant to honor the Shoshone people who originally inhabited the areas in which the specimen was discovered and to refer to the relationship of the lizard with corytophanid lizards. At the request of Christian A Sidor, who discovered the fossil, the species name also honors John P. Alexander, who discovered the holotype.
Modern day Wyoming in no way resembles the tropical forests of Central and South America but, the next time you travel any part of our great state, challenge yourself a little and try to imagine what it might have been like 50 million years ago. Picture huge palm trees, giant redwoods and massive swamps and lakes filled with all manner of fish, reptiles and amphibians. Birds would have filled the air and many large bodied mammals developed during this period. Primates also developed during the Eocene as well as rodents, bats and the early members of the dog, cat, bear and weasel families. By the end of the Eocene many species had gone extinct, along with most of North America’s primates.