Recently, the fossil of a new species of reptile with a long bony neck and long legs has been discovered, and with it scientists have a clearer picture of the Early Triassic Period.

These lizards aptly named 'Strider' after the famous 'Lord of The Rings' character, have history dating back 250 million years, right from the end of the Permian Mass Extinction.

After that, life spread in all corners of the planet and evolved however required, whenever needed. Descendants of this species from the middle to late Triassic period had been discovered previously and scientists thought them to be mostly aquatic or amphibian.

The study that has been published in the journal PLOS ONE, states that the rare fossil, named 'Elessaurus Gondwanocciens' is from the early Triassic area.

According to a report in CNN, the first part of the name has been derived from J R R tolkien's Elvish language called Quenya, where 'Elessar' means 'Elf-stone'. Elessar Telcontar is the name also chosen by King Argon II, who also goes by the nicknames Strider and Longshanks. And this theory is substantiated by the fact that this reptile had long legs and hence it was appropriate for the researchers to have given them this name.

The reports further states that the species name, 'gondwanoccidens', has been derived from the super continent Gondwana that had once included the modern-day regions of Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, the Arabian Peninsula, Australia and New Zealand.

In Latin, "occidens" means "from west", hence the name suggests the location of the fossil.

Found in Southern Brazil, these reptiles seemed more suited to staying in land than water. This fact helped researchers connect the dots from the Permian extinction to the late Triassic. They now speak with greater confidence that this maybe the early relative of later Tanystropheus, who roamed the waters of the northern continents.

This means that after the extinction event, the Elessaurus diversified and spread wide before evolving through time.

Source: https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/researchers-name-250-million-year-old-dinosaur-fossil-after-lord-of-the-rings-character-2571113.html

250 million years, that is a very very very long time ago