(CN) - Unbeknownst to the Natural History Museum of Utah, it was hiding pieces of an unidentified ancient monstersaurian that could help explain the evolutionary history of the Gila monster and other large lizard relatives. 

The creature - dubbed Bolg amondol, a name taken from the name of a goblin prince in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and a combination of the book's Elvish language's word for "mound" and "head" - was discovered by Hank Woolley, a national science foundation postdoctoral research fellow at the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Woolley, lead author of the study published in the Royal Society Open Science on Tuesday, found the creature in fragmentary pieces in a jar simply marked "lizard" at the Natural History Museum of Utah.   

Cobbling together the creature's skull, limbs, girdles, vertebrae and bony armor called osteoderms, Woolley determined that the fossil,= was actually a yet undiscovered species of large lizards from a family of lizards called monstersaurs.

The Bolg, the researchers determined, was around three feet long from tip to tail and lived some 76 million years ago in what's now Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The closest known relative of the Bolg lives in the Gobi Desert, meaning its discovery highlights that, along with dinosaurs, smaller creatures also made the journey from Asia to the Americas across the Bering Land Bridge, the researchers write. 

"It sort of highlights this bio-geographic highway," Woolley told Courthouse News over the phone. "There was a lot of sort of back and forth that folks are finding in flora and fauna in the late Cretaceous [through the Bering Land Bridge]."

The fossil record of lizards in North America is sparse, so finding a new species that helps fill out holes in the record is important, Woolley added. 

The Bolg's closest living relative is the Gila monster, the researchers found. 

"Discovering a new species of lizard that is an ancestor of modern Gila monsters is pretty cool in and of itself, but what's particularly exciting is what it tells us about the unique 76-million-year-old ecosystem it lived in," said co-author Randy Irmis, associate professor at the University of Utah and curator of paleontology at NHMU, in a statement. "The fact that Bolg co-existed with several other large lizard species indicates that this was a stable and productive ecosystem where these animals were taking advantage of a wide variety of prey and different micro-habitats."

Although they're not sure when exactly the Bolg went extinct and for what reason, Woolley said he hopes his research inspires people to go out into the field more to look for more complete lizard fossils so that the North American lizard fossil record - and our understanding of the evolutionary history of lizards on the continent - can be further expanded since they're important cog in ecosystems around the world.  

The researchers also highlights the importance of public lands in the western U.S., Woolley added, since Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has become a hotspot for paleontologists discovering fossils of new species there all the time.    

"It's produced one of the most astounding dinosaur records in North American history," Woolley said about the National Monument. "It's just a really valuable lens into past life. I think this is sort of the importance of protecting scientific natural and cultural heritage and public lands in the west." 

The National Monument, established by President Bill Clinton in 1996, was reduced in size by President Donald Trump in 2017, then restored in size by President Joe Biden. It was the center of a federal lawsuit challenging that restoration and the state of Utah's right to approve mineral mining leases.  

"Everybody loves dinosaurs, right?" Woolley said. "Not everybody loves lizards. But when people find out where it comes from and why it's important, I think it's really powerful."

Source: Courthouse News Service