Ardeosaurus brevipes (Meyer, 1860) Late Jurassic, ~150 mya, ~20 cm in length, was originally and subsequently (Mateer 1982) considered a gekkotan. Here Ardeosaurus and its sister, Eichstaettisaurus, were derived from a sister to Tchingisaurus and it nested at the base of all snakes, including Adriosaurus and Pachyrhachis. Ardeosaurus was basal to Eichstaettisaurus and Jucaraseps. This is one of the earliest known stem snakes that is not also a gecko, even though it looks like a gecko.

Norellius nyctisaurops (Conrad and Daza 2015) Added to the large reptile tree, Norelliius nests next to the Gekko clade that has Tchingisaurus at its base. Norelliius nests at the base of the clade that produced Eichstaettisaurus, Tetrapodophis and snakes, further cementing these two clades together. And it’s the fiirst good look at the palate around this node.

Look closely at the pterygoid of Norellius. There are tiny teeth there, the origin of large pterygoid teeth in snakes! Mosasaurs grew those pterygoid teeth convergently, hence the confusion with Pythonomorpha, another invalid clade (snakes + mosasaurs, Cope 1869). They say the lacrimal is absent, and it is absent on the left with a space left over to receive it, but it appears to be present on the right (Fig. 1). Sister taxa all have a lacrimal.

Broili F 1938. Ein neuer fund von ?Ardeosaurus H. von Meyer. S.-B. bayer. Akad. Wiss. München, math.-naturw. Abt. 97-114.

Conrad JL and Daza JD 2015. Naming and rediagnosing the Cretaceous gekkonomorph (Reptilia, Squamata) from Öösh (Övörkhangai, Mongolia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35:5, e980891

Conrad JL and Norell MA 2006. High-resolution x-ray computed tomography of an Early Cretaceous gekkonomorph (Squamata) from Öosh ( €Ov€orkhangai; Mongolia). Historical Biology 18:405–431.

Daza JD, Bauer AM and Snively E 2013. Gobekko cretacicus (Reptilia: Squamata) and its bearing on the interpretation of gekkotan affinities. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 167:430–448.ischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, München 1938: 97–114.

Evans SE, Raia P and Barbera C 2004. New lizards and rhynchocephalians from the Lower Cretaceous of southern Italy. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49:393-408.

Hoffstetter R 1953. Les Sauriens anté−crétacés. Bulletin de la Museum Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle 25: 345–352.

Kuhn O 1958. Ein neuer lacertilier aus dem fränkischen Lithographie−schiefer. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte 1958: 437–440.

Mateer NJ 1982. Osteology of the Jurassic Lizard Ardeosaurus brevipes (Meyer). Palaeontology 25(3):461-469. online pdf

Meyer H von 1860. Zur Fauna der Vorwelt. Reptilien aus dem lithographischen Schiefer des Jura in Deutschland mit Franchreich. Frankfurt-am-Main.

wiki/Ardeosaurus
wiki/Norellius