It Came From the Squamazoic

During the last few months of orgiastic speculative-zoology mania, zologist Darren Naish ( [link] ) came up with the idea of a world where squamates (lizards, snakes and allies) reign supreme as the dominant macro-and-megafauna.

"...Firstly, we have Squamate World. Mammals never really get going inthe latter part of the Cretaceous, and while amphibians, turtles,birds and crocodilians continue as normal, it is squamates that come to dominate the post-Mesozoic biosphere. Herds of millions of herbivorous agamids dominate Eurasia and Africa, and giant armour-plated (but still sprawling) omnivorous skinks and mastigures inhabit scrublands, deserts and uplands across the Old World. Lacertids and skinks evolve unparalleled diversity, with small insectivores and mid-sized generalists occurring across all environments, from forest floors to tree tops.

Giant predatory short-skulled amphisbaenians prey on large surface-dwelling animals [adjacent image, from Digimorph, shows the 10 mm skull of the predatory amphisbaenian Anops kingii. Imagine enlarging this animal so that its skull was 30 cm long]. Crotaphytid iguanians in the Americas evolve erect gaits and endothermy, and become long-legged giant cursorial predators. Across North America and Eurasia, diverse venomous helodermatids and big geckos skulk around at night. Big terrestrial and scansorial anoles dominate the American tropics and big bizarre iguanians are spread across the islands of the Pacific.

The lack of amphibious and aquatic mammals means that several squamate lineages take to the seas, with Mediterranean lacertids, Australasian skinks, Pacific iguanines and American anguids all evolving amphibious and aquatic forms. The seas are filled with untold billions of sea snakes, and not just small ones, but gian tones too. Boids and their kin never go through an Oligocene-Miocene 'dark period' and Eurasia and North America are full of sandboas and related forms, and colubroids never really took off because rodents didn't; instead small, gracile boas and pythons undergo aradiation and mostly prey on tiny diverse lacertids and geckos.

Varanids in SE Asia and Australasia, and iguanines in South America,evolve endothermy and enhanced encephalisation. Short-faced arboreal iguanines evolve increasingly complex societies and cultures from the Miocene onwards.
..."

After this juicy bit of speculation, my friend Tim got started with making the Squamate world into a project, at this link. ( [link] ) However, there have been no updates for quite a while.

I'd really want to go deep into this project, but already having my hands full, I can only look and imagine. Perhaps this picture can give the Squamozoic the the pump-up it desperately needs to get it going.