Paleoanguimorpha

Paleoanguimorpha
Temporal range: Aptian – Present, 125–0 Ma
Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus)
Lace monitor (Varanus varius)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Anguimorpha
Infraorder: Paleoanguimorpha
Vidal & Hedges, 2009
Subclades

Paleoanguimorpha is a clade of anguimorphs comprising Shinisauria (represented today by shinisaurids) and Goannasauria (represented today by Varanoidea which includes the families Lanthanotidae and Varanidae).[1][2][3][4][5] Morphological studies in the past also classified helodermatids and pythonomorphs with the varanoids in the clade Platynota,[6][7] while the Chinese crocodile lizard was classified as a xenosaurid.[8] Current molecular work finds no support in these groupings and instead has found the helodermatids more related to Diploglossa in the sister clade Neoanguimorpha, while the Chinese crocodile lizard is the closet living relative to varanoids.[2][3] Pythonomorphs represented by snakes today are not closely related to varanoids and are instead a sister lineage to Anguimorpha and Iguania in the clade Toxicofera.[1][3]

Below is the phylogeny of the paleoanguimorph lineages after Pyron et al. (2013):[3]

Paleoanguimorpha
Shinisauria

Shinisauridae (Chinese crocodile lizard)

Varanoidea

Lanthanotidae (earless monitor lizard)

Varanidae (monitor lizards)

  1. ^ a b Fry, Bryan G.; Vidal, Nicolas; Norman, Janette A.; Vonk, Freek J.; Scheib, Holger; Ramjan, S. F. Ryan; Kuruppu, Sanjaya; Fung, Kim; Blair Hedges, S.; Richardson, Michael K.; Hodgson, Wayne. C.; Ignjatovic, Vera; Summerhayes, Robyn; Kochva, Elazar (2005). "Early evolution of the venom system in lizards and snakes". Nature. 439 (7076): 584–8. Bibcode:2006Natur.439..584F. doi:10.1038/nature04328. PMID 16292255. S2CID 4386245.
  2. ^ a b Vidal, Nicolas; Hedges, S. Blair (2009). "The molecular evolutionary tree of lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians". Comptes Rendus Biologies. 332 (2–3): 129–39. doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2008.07.010. PMID 19281946. S2CID 23137302. Archived from the original on 2024-03-09. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  3. ^ a b c d Pyron; Burbrink; Wiens (2013). "A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 13: 93. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-93. PMC 3682911. PMID 23627680.
  4. ^ Zheng, Yuchi; Wiens, John J. (2016). "Combining phylogenomic and supermatrix approaches, and a time-calibrated phylogeny for squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes) based on 52 genes and 4162 species". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 94 (Pt B): 537–547. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.10.009. PMID 26475614.
  5. ^ Wiens, J. J.; Hutter, C. R.; Mulcahy, D. G.; Noonan, B. P.; Townsend, T. M.; Sites, J. W.; Reeder, T. W. (2012). "Resolving the phylogeny of lizards and snakes (Squamata) with extensive sampling of genes and species". Biology Letters. 8 (6): 1043–6. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0703. PMC 3497141. PMID 22993238.
  6. ^ McDowell, S.B.; Bogert, C.M. (1954). "The systematic position of Lanthanotus and the affinities of the anguinomorphan lizards". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 105: 1–141.
  7. ^ Lee, M.S.Y. (1997). "The phylogeny of varanoid lizards and the affinities of snakes". Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences. 352 (1349): 53–91. Bibcode:1997RSPTB.352...53L. doi:10.1098/rstb.1997.0005. PMC 1691912.
  8. ^ Bhullar, B. A. S. (2011). "The Power and Utility of Morphological Characters in Systematics: A Fully Resolved Phylogeny of Xenosaurus and Its Fossil Relatives (Squamata: Anguimorpha)". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 160 (3): 65–181. doi:10.3099/0027-4100-160.3.65. S2CID 86328454.