Scientists Dug Into Ancient Wyoming Rock and Found a Tiny Fossil After 50 Million Years That Didn’t Fit the Evolutionary Record

Tiny Teeth In Wyoming Reveal A New SpeciesResearchers found dozens of jaw and tooth fragments belonging to Tetonius varleyorum at a sandstone locality called Tim’s Confession. “We named it Tetonius varleyorum,” Rhinehart explained in a statement. Partial dentary specimens of the newly described species Tetonius varleyorum from the Smiley Draw local fauna, Wyoming. Evolutionary sequence of Tetonius dentitions showing successive stages from the Bighorn Basin fossil record, including Tetonius varleyorum from the Smiley Draw local fauna in Wyoming. “Our analysis reveals that the new fossils of Tetonius varleyorum interrupt the purported anagenetic lineage from the Bighorn Basin,” Rhinehart said.