title: A stem acrodontan lizard in the Cretaceous of Brazil revises early lizard evolution in Gondwana.
abstract: Iguanians are one of the most diverse groups of extant lizards (>1,700 species) with acrodontan iguanians dominating in the Old World, and non-acrodontans in the New World. A new lizard species presented herein is the first acrodontan from South America, indicating acrodontans radiated throughout Gondwana much earlier than previously thought, and that some of the first South American lizards were more closely related to their counterparts in Africa and Asia than to the modern fauna of South America. This suggests both groups of iguanians achieved a worldwide distribution before the final breakup of Pangaea. At some point, non-acrodontans replaced acrodontans and became the only iguanians in the Americas, contrary to what happened on most of the Old World. This discovery also expands the diversity of Cretaceous lizards in South America, which with recent findings, suggests sphenodontians were not the dominant lepidosaurs in that continent as previously hypothesized.
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G2E9.
authors: Tiago R
authors: TR
authors: Simões
authors: Centro Paleontológico da UnC (CENPALEO), Universidade do Contestado, Mafra, Santa Catarina, Brazil CEP 89300-000.
authors: Everton
authors: E
authors: Wilner
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G2E9.|Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G2E9.
authors: Michael W
authors: MW
authors: Caldwell
authors: Centro Paleontológico da UnC (CENPALEO), Universidade do Contestado, Mafra, Santa Catarina, Brazil CEP 89300-000.
authors: Luiz C
authors: LC
authors: Weinschütz
authors: Laboratory of Systematics and Taphonomy of Fossil Vertebrates, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil CEP 20940-040.
authors: Alexander W A
authors: AW
authors: Kellner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001938:Brazil; D005580:Fossils; D007076:Iguanas; D008116:Lizards; D010802:Phylogeny