Pariguana (meaning "near Iguana" in Greek) is an extinct genus of iguanid lizard from the Late Cretaceous of western North America. It is known from a single type species, Pariguana lancensis, named in 2012 on the basis of a partial lower jaw from the Lance Formation in eastern Wyoming. This jaw bone comes from a layer dated approximately 650,000 years before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Pariguana is the oldest definitive iguanid from North America, and may represent the first stage of the iguanian evolutionary radiation from Asia into North America.[1]

Pariguana
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 67 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Iguania
Family: Iguanidae
Genus: Pariguana
Longrich et al., 2012
Type species
Pariguana lancensis
Longrich et al., 2012

References

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  1. ^ Longrich, Nicholas R.; Bhullar, Bhart-Anjan S.; Gauthier, Jacques A. (2012). "Mass extinction of lizards and snakes at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 109 (52): 21396–401. Bibcode:2012PNAS..10921396L. doi:10.1073/pnas.1211526110. PMC 3535637. PMID 23236177.