Jurassic Tree Climber: Fossil Study Reveals Marmoretta Lived in the Canopy, Not the Water

[frankerkanol]

The 166-million-year-old reptile Marmoretta oxoniensis has long been thought to have lived a semi-aquatic lifestyle, swimming through ancient lagoons. But new research is turning that idea on its head—literally. Using cutting-edge scanning technologies, scientists now believe Marmoretta was a tree-dwelling climber, not a swimmer.

Tiny reptile fossils are helping researchers paint a more detailed picture of life in the U.K. during the Middle Jurassic, a critical but poorly understood period of evolution, lasting from about 174 to 161 million years ago. While much attention has been given to large dinosaurs, smaller reptiles like Marmoretta often go unnoticed, in part because their fragile fossils are difficult to study.

Marmoretta is known from specimens found in Oxfordshire and on Scotland’s Isle of Skye. Because it was discovered alongside marine fossils, paleontologists had long assumed it lived in water. However, Dr. David Ford, who led the new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, used modern scanning techniques to show that this small reptile likely lived in trees.

“It’s not just about knowing a species existed, but understanding how it lived,” said Ford. “To see the full picture of life during this period, we need to study both the small creatures and the giants.”

Marmoretta belongs to a group called stem lepidosaurs, early relatives of modern lizards, snakes, and the tuatara. These lepidosaurs, along with archosaurs (which include crocodiles, birds, and dinosaurs), split from a common ancestor around 260 million years ago. However, fossils of early lepidosaurs are rare, and most of what remains are tiny, delicate fragments.

Historically, scientists would dissolve the surrounding rock with acid to access such fossils, but this often destroyed any structural relationships between bones. Thanks to CT scanning and synchrotron imaging—powerful techniques that allow researchers to examine fossils without removing them from rock—scientists can now study even the most delicate specimens in unprecedented detail.

Marmoretta’s skull is just two centimeters long, and its finger bones measure only millimeters. Using synchrotron scans, Ford and his team discovered that the reptile had long, curved finger bones, ideal for gripping tree trunks and branches—features not found in aquatic reptiles, which usually have flatter digits or webbing for swimming. Its stiff spine would also have aided balance while climbing.

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“Traditional fossil preparation methods would never have revealed this,” said Ford. “But with high-resolution imaging, we could finally see how this animal was really built.”

To strengthen their conclusions, the team compared Marmoretta’s bone structure to that of modern reptiles using statistical analyses. Their findings support the idea that Marmoretta spent much of its life in trees, perhaps in forested areas surrounding subtropical lagoons—environments similar to today’s mangrove swamps.

Climbing may have been a survival strategy to avoid predators, giving Marmoretta and its relatives an evolutionary edge. “Using vertical space might have been a key to their success,” said Ford. “It’s a tactic we also see in early mammals from the Triassic period.”

Beyond reshaping our understanding of Marmoretta, the research introduces new methods for reconstructing the lives of other small, early reptiles. Ford hopes this approach will help paleontologists explore the rich diversity of lesser-known species and the varied ecological roles they played.

“There’s still so much to learn about early reptiles,” Ford added. “But as technology advances, we’re getting closer to understanding how these animals evolved and thrived alongside dinosaurs.”