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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/73127
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Tikiguania and the antiquity of squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes) |
Author: | Hutchinson, M. Skinner, A. Lee, M. |
Citation: | Biology Letters, 2012; 8(4):665-669 |
Publisher: | The Royal Society |
Issue Date: | 2012 |
ISSN: | 1744-9561 1744-957X |
Statement of Responsibility: | Mark N. Hutchinson, Adam Skinner and Michael S. Y. Lee |
Abstract: | Tikiguania estesi is widely accepted to be the earliest member of Squamata, the reptile group that includes lizards and snakes. It is based on a lower jaw from the Late Triassic of India, described as a primitive lizard related to agamids and chamaeleons. However, Tikiguania is almost indistinguishable from living agamids; a combined phylogenetic analysis of morphological and molecular data places it with draconines, a prominent component of the modern Asian herpetofauna. It is unlikely that living agamids have retained the Tikiguania morphotype unchanged for over 216 Myr; it is much more conceivable that Tikiguania is a Quaternary or Late Tertiary agamid that was preserved in sediments derived from the Triassic beds that have a broad superficial exposure. This removes the only fossil evidence for lizards in the Triassic. Studies that have employed Tikiguana for evolutionary, biogeographical and molecular dating inferences need to be reassessed. |
Keywords: | reptilia agamidae chamaeleonidae palaeontology phylogeny |
Rights: | © 2012 The Royal Society |
DOI: | 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1216 |
Grant ID: | ARC |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.1216 |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest 5 Earth and Environmental Sciences publications Environment Institute publications |
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