Gueragama
Gueragama Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Suborder: | Iguania |
Clade: | Acrodonta |
Genus: | †Gueragama Simões et al., 2015[1] |
Type species | |
†Gueragama sulamericana Simões et al., 2015[1]
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Gueragama is an extinct genus of iguanian lizard from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. It belongs to a group of iguanians called Acrodonta, whose living members include chameleons and agamids and are currently restricted to the Old World. Gueragama is the only acrodont known from South America, providing evidence that the group once ranged across much of Gondwana and only became restricted to the Old World after the supercontinent broke apart. The type species, Gueragama sulamericana, was named in 2015 on the basis of an isolated lower jaw from the Turonian- to Campanian-age Goio-Erê Formation in the Bauru Basin, which was deposited in a desert environment. Unlike modern acrodontans, whose teeth implant on the margins of the jaws, Gueragama has teeth that implant along the inner surface of the lower jaw, a feature common in most non-acrodontan lizards and characteristic of the second major group of iguanians, Pleurodonta. The non-acrodont dentition of Gueragama is evidence of its basal position within Acrodonta, and is shared with the taxon of Late Cretaceous acrodontan relatives, the family Priscagamidae.[1]
References[]
- ^ a b c Simões, Tiago R.; Wilner, Everton; Caldwell, Michael W.; Weinschütz, Luiz C.; Kellner, Alexander W. A. (26 August 2015). "A stem acrodontan lizard in the Cretaceous of Brazil revises early lizard evolution in Gondwana". Nature Communications. 6: 8149. doi:10.1038/ncomms9149. PMC 4560825. PMID 26306778.
- Cretaceous lizards
- Late Cretaceous reptiles of South America
- Cretaceous Brazil
- Fossils of Brazil
- Fossil taxa described in 2015
- Prehistoric lizard stubs