Parks Service interns discover new species of 220-million-year-old reptile

A team of interns discovered a new species of 220 million-year-old burrowing reptile in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, according to the National Park Service.

Drepanosaurs were odd little guys and “possessed an array of strange morphologies including enlarged second claws, bird-like beaks, and tails ending with a claw,” the Park Service writes.

A team of student researchers from schools like Virginia Tech and Idaho State made a discovery that was even odder: most drepanosaurs had claws for climbing or living in trees, but their specimen, full name: Skybalonyx skapter, had claws meant for burrowing. Its name means “dung-claw digger” in Greek, the researchers told CNN, and its bones were found in a deposit of fossilized poop.