by Staff Writers New Haven CT (SPX) Dec 12, 2012 The asteroid
collision widely thought to have killed the dinosaurs also led
to extreme devastation among snake and lizard species, according
to new research - including the extinction of a newly identified
lizard species Yale and Harvard scientists have named Obamadon
gracilis. "The asteroid event is typically thought of as
affecting the dinosaurs primarily," said Nicholas R. Longrich, a
postdoctoral associate with Yale's Department of Geology and
Geophysics and lead author of the study. "But it basically cut
this broad swath across the entire ecosystem, taking out
everything. Snakes and lizards were hit extremely hard." The
study was scheduled for online publication in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences. Earlier studies have suggested
that some snake and lizard species (as well as many mammals,
birds, insects and plants) became extinct after the asteroid
struck the earth 65.5 million years ago, on the edge of the
Yucatan Peninsula. But the new