Barbaturex morrisoni

A giant lizard that lived 40 million years ago at a time when Earth was a hothouse has been named in honour of rock singer Jim Morrison.  Around 1.80 metres from snout to tail and tipping the scales at up to 27 kilograms, the plant-eating reptile is one of the biggest-known lizards ever to have lived on land.  It competed with mammals for food in the humid tropical forests of Southeast Asia.  A fossil of the beast, found in sediment in Sagaing district in Myanmar, has been dated to the late-middle Eocene period, when Earth was so hot there was no ice at its poles.