Leiosauridae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

iguania Iguania is an infraorder of squamate reptiles that includes iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and New World lizards like anoles and phrynosomatids. Using morphological features as a guide to evolutionary relationships, the Iguania are believed t ...

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s containing six

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

and 34

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. The family is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Taxonomy

A 2022 phylogenetic study found the Leiosauridae to be the sister taxa to the

Opluridae The Opluridae, or Madagascan iguanas, are a family of moderately sized lizards native to Madagascar and Grande Comore. There are eight species in two genera, with most of the species being in ''Oplurus''. The Opluridae, along with ''Brachylophus'' ...

, a unique family of iguanians

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, and one of only two

pleurodont Pleurodont is a form of tooth implantation common in reptiles of the order Squamata, as well as in at least one temnospondyl. The labial (cheek) side of pleurodont teeth are fused (ankylosed) to the inner surface of the jaw bones which host them. T ...

lineages found outside the Americas (the other being the genus ''

Brachylophus The genus ''Brachylophus'' consists of four extant iguanid species native to the islands of Fiji and a giant extinct species from Tonga in the South West Pacific. One of the extant species, ''B. fasciatus'', is also present on Tonga, where it ha ...

''). This called into question the previous hypothesis of Opluridae being the last members of an ancient lineage of

Gondwanan Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

iguanians, as the study found that the Leiosauridae and Opluridae only diverged during the

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...

, about 60 million years ago. Opluridae are now thought to have colonized Madagascar via

oceanic dispersal Oceanic dispersal is a type of biological dispersal that occurs when terrestrial organisms transfer from one land mass to another by way of a sea crossing. Island hopping is the crossing of an ocean by a series of shorter journeys between island ...

from South America, either directly or indirectly.

Genera

The family Leiosauridae contains the following

:"Leiosauridae". The

Reptile Database The Reptile Database is a scientific database that collects taxonomic information on all living reptile species (i.e. no fossil species such as dinosaurs). The database focuses on species (as opposed to higher ranks such as families) and has entrie ...

. www.reptile-database.org.

Taxonomy

Genera

References

Further reading