Iguania

Iguania is the suborder of Squamata (snakes and lizards) that contains the iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and "New World lizards" such as anoles and Phrynosomatidae. The Iguania were previously believed to form the sister group to the remainder of the Squamata based on morphological characteristics, however molecular information has placed Iguania well within the Squamata as sister taxa to the Anguimorpha and closely related to snakes.^[1] They are largely arboreal and have primitively fleshy, non-prehensile tongues, but this condition is obviously highly modified in the chameleons. Traditionally, the clade includes the following families:^[2]:

• Family Agamidae – Agamid Lizards, Old World Arboreal Lizards
• Family Chamaeleonidae – Chameleons
• Family Corytophanidae – Helmet Lizards
• Family Crotaphytidae – Collared Lizards, Leopard Lizards
• Family Hoplocercidae – Dwarf and Spiny Tail Iguanas
• Family Iguanidae – American Arboreal Lizards, Chuckwallas, Iguanas
• Family Opluridae – Malagasy Iguanas
• Family Phrynosomatidae – North American Spiny Lizards
• Family Polychrotidae – Anoles and kin
• Family Tropiduridae – Tropidurid Lizards

Extinct:

• Pleurodonta
  • Saichangurvel

More recently, a revised delimitation of families is proposed to be more phylogenetically accurate. Most notably, this reduces the Iguanidae to a core set of taxa, upranking many of its former subfamilies to full iguanian families. See Iguanidae article for further information.

References