First Tupinambinae teiid (Squamata, Teiidae) from the Palaeogene of South America

Abstract

The Lumbrera Formation in north-western Argentina is notable for preserving lizard remains from the Palaeogene of South America. In this paper, we offer a re-description and re-evaluation of the material belonging to the holotype of the teiid lizard Lumbrerasaurus scagliai (Donadío, 1985) recovered from sediments of the Lumbrera Formation near Pampa Grande, Salta province, Argentina. Lumbrerasaurus scagliai is considered here as an extinct genus of Tupinambinae. These remains are the earliest record of teiid lizards and confirm the presence of tupinambine teiids in the South American Palaeogene.

Keywords::

• Squamata
• Teiidae
• Tupinambinae
• Palaeogene
• South America

Acknowledgements

We thank A. Dondas (MMP) and F. Scaglia (MMP) for allowing the study of the Lumbrera fossils. We are grateful to the following people who facilitated, in one way or another, reference material for this study: M. Cabrera (AC), E.R. Heyer (USNM), S. Kretzschmar (FML), H. Núñez (MNHNC), G. Schneider (UMMZ), M.E. Tedesco (UNNE), O. Torres Carvajal (QCAZR), L.E. Vega (UNMdP) and H. Zaher (MZUSP). We also thank the reviewers J.D. Daza, R.L. Nydam and K.T. Smith for their valuable comments on the manuscript and F. Tricárico (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales) for the helping us with the scanning electron microscope images.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [grant number PIP-CONICET 112-200901-00176].