Abstract from A Long-Bodied Lizard from the Lower Cretaceous of Japan, by S.E. Evans, M. Manabe, M. Noro, S. Isaji, and M. Yamaguchi, 2006 (Palaeontology 49:1143-1165):

       Platynotan lizards underwent a dramatic Late Cretaceous radiation into marine habitats. Beginning        with small-bodied forms, the lineage culminated with the mosasaurs, large predatory lizards with a        world-wide distribution in the Santonian–Campanian. Moreover, the marine squamate radiations of the        Cenomanian–Turonian are remarkable in having produced a range of long-bodied, reduced-limbed        swimmers (dolichosaurs, adriosaurs, coniasaurs and limbed snakes) that seem to have thrived in the        shallow coastal environments of the Western Tethys region. Until now, none of these long-bodied        aquatic squamates has been recorded prior to the Cenomanian, none has been recovered from a        non-marine locality and none is known from Asia. Here we describe a small, gracile, long-bodied        mosasauroid lizard from a swampy continental deposit in the Lower Cretaceous of Japan.

This specimen, the holotype, consists of the part (shown above) and counterpart of an articulated partial skeleton comprising parts of the dorsal vertebral series and parts of the tail, pelvis and hind limbs. It was collected from the Neocomian Kuwajima Formation, Itoshiro Subgroup, Tetori Group at Kuwajima, Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture, Honshu, Japan. It was made available for scanning by Dr. Makoto Manabe of the National Science Museum, Tokyo and Dr. Susan Evans of University College London.

Joint work on the Tetori vertebrate assemblage was initiated under Royal Society-Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Funding, and was continued under grants from the Prefectural Government of Ishikawa and the Village of Shiramine (now part of Hakusan City), and a grant-in-aid for Scientific Research (No. 15340179) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan (to Makoto Manabe). Funding for CT scanning and image processing was provided by the latter body. Funding for image processing for the web was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin.

View of part	View of counterpart

The specimen was scanned by Matthew Colbert on 24-25 February 2004. The part and counterpart were scanned separately. Each 1024x1024 pixel slice is 0.06 mm thick, with an interslice spacing of 0.06 mm and a field of reconstruction of 40 mm.

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	Movie showing close-up of vertebrae. Click on thumbnail to view (2mb).
	Movie showing close-up of pelvic region. Click on thumbnail to view (2mb).
	Movie showing close-up of left hindlimb (from counterpart). Click on thumbnail to view (1mb).