Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

Journal of Paleontology

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by CONRAD, J. L. Articles by GRANDE, L. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

A GREEN RIVER (EOCENE) POLYCHROTID (SQUAMATA: REPTILIA) AND A RE-EXAMINATION OF IGUANIAN SYSTEMATICS

¹ Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024 USA, <jconrad{at}amnh.org>;
² Department of Geology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605 USA, <rieppel{at}fieldmuseum.org>, <lgrande{at}fieldmuseum.org>

A pleurodontan iguanian from the Green River Formation (Eocene) is described in detail and named. The new taxon is known only from a single specimen preserving all areas of the body. Although many of the bone surfaces are eroded, almost all of the skeleton is present and some cartilaginous elements are preserved. The new taxon shares important characteristics with the extant anisolepines and leiosaurines, including the morphology and placement of the caudal autotomy planes, the postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs, and notched or fenestrated clavicles that are expanded proximally. This is the earliest complete iguanian known from the Americas and the earliest known iguanian that may be confidently referred to an extant "family." A phylogenetic analysis including this taxon and other fossil and extant iguanians offers some support for the monophyly of Polychrotidae sensu lato, Tropiduridae sensu lato, and non-acrodont iguanians (Pleurodonta).