Schoenesmahl dyspepsia was a lizard that lived in what is now Europe during the late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago. Around 30cm long (~1′), it had a fairly small head, elongated hind limbs, and a very long tail – proportions that suggest it was an agile animal capable of fast running.
Only one specimen is known, most notable for being preserved inside the stomach of the dinosaur Compsognathus. For a long time it was classified as an example of Bavarisaurus, but it was finally recognized as representing a distinct type of lizard in 2018, with recent studies placing it as an early member of the gecko lineage closely related to ardeosaurids and eichstaettisaurids.
References:
- Conrad, Jack L. “A new lizard (Squamata) was the last meal of Compsognathus (Theropoda: Dinosauria) and is a holotype in a holotype.” Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 183.3 (2018): 584-634. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx055
- Meyer, Dalton, et al. “A Morrison stem gekkotan reveals gecko evolution and Jurassic biogeography.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290.2011 (2023): 20232284. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2284
- Wikipedia contributors. “Schoenesmahl” Wikipedia, 19 Jan. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoenesmahl