Iguania

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Suborder of lizards

title: "Iguania" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["iguanomorpha", "early-jurassic-first-appearances", "toxicofera"] description: "Suborder of lizards" topic_path: "general/iguanomorpha" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguania" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Suborder of lizards ::

| fossil_range = | image = Leiocephalus-personatus-maskenleguan.jpg | image_caption = Hispaniolan masked curly-tailed lizard (Leiocephalus personatus) | image2 = BennyTrapp Chamaeleo chamaeleon Samos Griechenland.jpg | image2_caption = Common chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon) | taxon = Iguania | authority = Cope, 1864 | display_parents = 2 | subdivision_ranks = Infraorders | subdivision = *Acrodonta

  • Pleurodonta Iguania is a suborder of squamate reptiles that includes iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and New World lizards. Using morphological features as a guide to evolutionary relationships, the Iguania are believed to form the sister group to the Squamata, which comprise nearly 11,000 named species, roughly 2000 of which are iguanians. However, molecular information has placed Iguania well within the Squamata as sister taxa to the Anguimorpha and closely related to snakes. The order has been under debate and revisions after being classified by Charles Lewis Camp in 1923 due to difficulties finding adequate synapomorphic morphological characteristics. Most iguanians are arboreal but there are several terrestrial groups. They usually have primitive fleshy, non-prehensile tongues, although the tongue is highly modified in chameleons. Today they are scattered occurring in Madagascar, the Fiji and Friendly Islands and Western Hemisphere.

Classification

The Iguania currently includes these extant families:

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:

|label1=Iguanomorpha |1={{clade |1=Hoyalacerta sanzi |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Huehuecuetzpalli mixtecus |2=Pristiguana brasiliensis}} |label2=Iguania |2={{clade |label1=Chamaeleontiformes |1={{clade |label1=Priscagamidae |1={{clade |1=Mimeosaurus crassus |2={{clade |1=Priscagama gobiensis |2=Phrynosomimus asper}} }} |label2=Acrodonta |2={{clade |1=Physignathus |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Agama |2={{clade |1=Uromastyx |2=Leiolepis}} }} |2={{clade |1=Rhampholeon |2=Brookesia}} }} }} }} |label2=Iguanoidea (=Pleurodonta) |2={{clade |1={{clade |label1=Gobiguania |1={{clade |1=Polrussia mongoliensis |2=Igua minuta |3=Isodontosaurus gracilis |4={{clade |1=Anchaurosaurus gilmorei |2=Zapsosaurus sceliphros}} |5={{clade |1=Saichangurvel davidsoni |2={{clade |1=Temujinia ellisoni |2=Ctenomastax parva}} }} }} |label2=Silvaiguana |2={{clade |label1=Hoplocercidae |1={{clade |1=Enyalioides |2={{clade |1=Morunasaurus |2=Hoplocercus}} }} |label2=Polychrotidae |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Polychrus gutturosus |2={{clade |1=Polychrus marmoratus |2={{clade |1=Polychrus femoralis |2=Afairiguana avius}} }} }} |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Leiosaurus |2={{clade |1=Anisolepis |2={{clade |1=Enyalius |2=Pristidactylus}} }} }} |2={{clade |1=Anolis electrum |2={{clade |1=Anolis occultus |2={{clade |1=Anolis heterodermus |2=Anolis vermiculatus}} }} }} }} }} }} }} |label2=Euiguana |2={{clade |label1=Corytophanidae |1={{clade |1=Laemanctus |2={{clade |1=Basiliscus |2=Corytophanes}} }} |label2=Terraiguana |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Iguanidae |label2=Crotaphytidae |2={{clade |1=Crotaphytus |2=Gambelia}} }} |2={{clade |label1=Phrynosomatidae |1={{clade |1=Phrynosoma |2={{clade |1=Uta |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Petrosaurus}} |2={{clade |1=Sceloporus |2=Urosaurus}} }} }} }} |2={{clade |label1=Opluridae |1={{clade |1=Chalarodon madagascariensis |2={{clade |1=Oplurus quadrimaculatus B |2={{clade |1=Oplurus quadrimaculatus A |2=Oplurus cyclurus}} }} }} |2={{clade |1=Uquiasaurus |2={{clade |label1=Liolaemidae |1={{clade |1=Phymaturus |2={{clade |1=Ctenoblepharys |2=Liolaemus}} }} |2={{clade |1=Leiocephalus |label2=Tropiduridae |2={{clade |1=Stenocercus |2={{clade |1=Tropidurus |2=Uranoscodon The extinct Arretosauridae (Paleogene iguanians from Central Asia) are alternatively classified in either the Acrodonta with other Old World iguanians, or in Pleurodonta as a sister group to the Crotaphytidae.

Conservation status

As of 2020 The IUCN Red List of endangered species lists 63.3% of the species as Least concern, 6.7% Near Threatened, 8.2 vulnerable, 9.1% endangered, 3.1% critically endangered, 0.3 extinct and 9.2% data deficient. The major threats include agriculture, residential and commercial development.

References

References

  1. Van Hoek, Monique. (2014-06-10). "Antimicrobial Peptides in Reptiles". Pharmaceuticals.
  2. (April 2012). "Assembling the Squamate Tree of Life: Perspectives from the Phenotype and the Fossil Record". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History.
  3. (2005). "The phylogeny of squamate reptiles (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) inferred from nine nuclear protein-coding genes". Comptes Rendus Biologies.
  4. (2012). "Cladistic Analysis of Iguania and a Fossil Lizard from the Late Pliocene of Northwestern Argentina". [[Journal of Herpetology]].
  5. (June 1985). "Charles L. Camp and His 1923 Classification of Lizards: An Early Cladist?". [[Systematic Zoology]].
  6. (23 December 2012). "Resolving the phylogeny of lizards and snakes (Squamata) with extensive sampling of genes and species". Biology Letters.
  7. (2003). "Phylogenetic Relationships within Iguanidae Inferred Using Molecular and Morphological Data and a Phylogenetic Taxonomy of Iguanian Lizards". Herpetologica.
  8. Alifanov, V. R.. (2012-07-01). "Lizards of the family Arretosauridae Gilmore, 1943 (Iguanomorpha, Iguania) from the Paleogene of Mongolia". Paleontological Journal.
  9. (2022-05-03). "The Jurassic rise of squamates as supported by lepidosaur disparity and evolutionary rates". eLife.
  10. https://www.iucnredlist.org/{{Vague. (July 2022)

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iguanomorphaearly-jurassic-first-appearancestoxicofera