A discovery has been reported by scientists of a 48-million-year-old fossil of a Jesus lizard in the US State of Wyoming. The creature was capable of walking on water.

An area stretching from central Mexico to northern Colombia is home to modern relatives of the Jesus lizard. With the help of the 48-million-year-old fossil, researchers have been able to give the first description of a new species, Babibasiliscus alxi. Experts say the discovery may represent the earliest clear member of the Jesus lizard group, Corytophanidae.

Researchers do not have enough number of fossils to understand this group, which includes iguanas and chameleons.

An ancestor of the present-day Jesus Lizard has been found by museum curator Christian Sidor, marking a landmark discovery. He came across the fossil in the Bridger Formation, a section of the Rocky Mountains that runs through Wyoming.

Details of the discovery have been published in the journal PLOS ONE. The species has been named Jesus lizard due to its ability to wade through water, as in the biblical story of Jesus Christ.

"This is the modern Jesus lizard living 48 million years ago. It's very, very similar. It tells us this group has been around a lot longer than we thought, and it diversified a lot more than we thought", said Jack Conrad, a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History.

Fossil records could also help scientists have a better understanding of global climate fluctuations.