Iguanomorpha
| Iguanomorpha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leiocephalus personatus, a species of iguanian | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Clade: | Iguanomorpha |
| Suborder: | Iguania |
| Families | |
|
Agamidae | |
Iguania is an infraorder of squamate reptiles that includes iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and New World lizards like anoles and phrynosomatids. Using morphological features as a guide to evolutionary relationships, the Iguania are believed to form the sister group to the remainder of the Squamata. However, molecular information has placed Iguania well within the Squamata as sister taxa to the Anguimorpha and closely related to snakes.[1] Iguanians are largely arboreal and usually have primitive fleshy, non-prehensile tongues, although the tongue is highly modified in chameleons. The group has a fossil record that extends back to the Early Jurassic (the oldest known member is Bharatagama, which lived about 190 million years ago in what is now India).[2]
Classification
The Iguania currently include these extant families:[3][4]
- Clade Acrodonta
- Family Agamidae – agamid lizards, Old World arboreal lizards
- Family Chamaeleonidae – chameleons
- Clade Pleurodonta – American arboreal lizards, chuckwallas, iguanas
- Family Leiocephalidae
- Genus Leiocephalus: curly-tailed lizards
- Family Corytophanidae – helmet lizards
- Family Crotaphytidae – collared lizards, leopard lizards
- Family Hoplocercidae – dwarf and spinytail iguanas
- Family Iguanidae – marine, Fijian, Galapagos land, spinytail, rock, desert, green, and chuckwalla iguanas
- Family Tropiduridae – tropidurine lizards
- subclade of Tropiduridae Tropidurini – neotropical ground lizards
- Family Dactyloidae – anoles
- Family Polychrotidae
- subclade of Polychrotidae Polychrus
- Family Phrynosomatidae – North American spiny lizards
- Family Liolaemidae – South American swifts
- Family Opluridae – Malagasy iguanas
- Family Leiosauridae – leiosaurs
- subclade of Leiosaurini Leiosaurae
- subclade of Leiosaurini Anisolepae
- Family Leiocephalidae
Phylogeny
Below is a cladogram from the phylogenetic analysis of Daza et al. (2012) (a morphological analysis), showing the interrelationships of extinct and living iguanians:[5]
| Iguanomorpha |
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References
- ↑ Vidal, N.; Hedges, S. B. (2005). "The phylogeny of squamate reptiles (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) inferred from nine nuclear protein-coding genes" (PDF). Comptes Rendus Biologies. 328 (10–11): 1000–1008. doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2005.10.001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-26.
- ↑ Evans, Susan E.; Prasad, G. V. R.; Manhas, B. K. (2002). "Fossil lizards from the Jurassic Kota Formation of India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 22 (2): 299. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0299:FLFTJK]2.0.CO;2.
- ↑ Wiens, J.J., C. R. Hutter, D. G. Mulcahy, B. P. Noonan, T. M. Townsend, J. W. Sites Jr., T. W. Reeder. (2012) Resolving the phylogeny of lizards and snakes (Squamata) with extensive sampling of genes and species. Biology Letters
- ↑ Schulte II, J. A., J. P. Valladares, and A. Larson. (2003) [Phylogenetic relationships within Iguanidae inferred using molecular and morphological data and a phylogenetic taxonomy of iguanian lizards.] Herpetologica 59: 399-419
- ↑ Daza, J. D.; Abdala, V.; Arias, J. S.; García-López, D.; Ortiz, P. (2012). "Cladistic Analysis of Iguania and a Fossil Lizard from the Late Pliocene of Northwestern Argentina". Journal of Herpetology. 46: 104. doi:10.1670/10-112.
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