Corytophanidae

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Corytophanidae
Frontal lobe basilisk

Frontal lobe basilisk

Systematics
without rank: Sauropsida
Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
without rank: Toxicofera
without rank: Iguana (Iguania)
Family : Corytophanidae
Scientific name
Corytophanidae
Smith & Brodie , 1982

The Corytophanidae are a family of iguanas (Iguania), which are distributed from central Mexico to central and northwestern South America . They are slim and long-legged, small to medium-sized lizards. They reach head-trunk lengths of nine to twenty centimeters. In the helmet iguanas and crowned basilisks , both sexes have large ridges of skin on the head, in the basilisk only the larger males. Helmet and frontal lobe basilisk also have ridges on their back and tail. The skin combs are stretched out during imposing and courtship and visually enlarge the animals.

Basilisks have enlarged scales on the sides of their toes, so they can run across watercourses very quickly when fleeing.

Apomorphies that distinguish the Corytophanidae from other iguanas include a Y-shaped parietal bone (not in Laemanctus ) and special vertebrae in the caudal spine.

Way of life

The Corytophanidae live in rain and dry forests, helmet iguanas and crowned basilisks on trees, basilisks more on the ground, often near watercourses.

All Corytophanidae feed on insects and other smaller animals and reproduce, except for the ovoviviparous Corytophanes percarinata , oviparous .

Systematics

The Corytophanidae were initially considered a subfamily of the iguanas (Iguanidae) until they were raised to the rank of a family by Frost and Etheridge in 1989. The purely arboreal (tree-dwelling) genera Corytophanes and Laemanctus together form a previously unnamed clade .

Corytophanes cristatus
Crowned Basilisk
Geiseltaliellus skeleton from the Middle Eocene of the Geiseltal

Tribal history

Geiseltaliellus and Babibasiliscus are among the earliest representatives of the Corytophanidae . The former is known from the Geiseltal and the Messel pit , both in Germany, and is documented by several skeletal finds, some of which are complete, suggesting an animal that is 20 to 30 cm long. The genus is partly assigned to the iguanas . The age of the two sites is 47 to 43 million years, which corresponds to the Middle Eocene . The latter could be described in 2015 using a complete skull and the first two cervical vertebrae from the Bridger Formation in the US state of Wyoming . Its age is dated to 48 million years, it is closely related to the crown basilisks. While the family is common today in Central and South America, it may have originated further north in North America or Eurasia. In the Middle Eocene, North America was around 9 ° C warmer than today on average, which advocated dense tropical to subtropical forests.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Krister T. Smith: Eocene Lizards of the Clade Geiseltaliellus from Messel and Geiseltal, Germany, and the Early Radiation of Iguanidae (Reptilia: Squamata). Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50 (2), 2009, pp. 219-306
  2. ↑ Jack L. Conrad: A New Eocene Casquehead Lizard (Reptilia, Corytophanidae) from North America. PlosOne 10 (7), 2015, p. E0127900 doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0127900

Web links

Commons : Corytophanidae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files