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Reptiles Database
Order Squamata
Suborder Sauria
Family Corytophanidae (Casque-headed Lizards)
sensu Frost & Etheridge (1989)
Corytophanid lizards are defined by the following characters (after Frost & Etheridge, 1989):
- maxillae not meeting anteromedially behind palatal portion of premaxilla;
- lacrimal foramen not enlarged;
- skull roof not strongly rugose, except in Laemanctus;
- jugal and squamosal broadly juxtaposed in Corytophanes and Laemanctus;
- parietal roof Y-shaped with median crest formed postembryonically in Basiliscus , embryonically in Corytophanes and Laemanctus;
- parietal foramen in frontal (parietal formen absent in Laemanctus);
- supratemporal sits on lateral sitde of supratemproal process of parietal;
- nuchal endolymphatic sacs do not penetrate nuchal musculature;
- dentary not expanded onto labial face of coronoid;
- no labial blade of coronoid;
- anterior surangular foramen superior to posteriormost extent of dentary;
- Meckel's groove fused (except in some Basiliscus);
- splenial relatively short (Corytophanes) or long (Basiliscus and Laemanctus) anteriorly;
- dentary and maxillary teeth pleurodont, not fused to underlying bone in adults;
- palatine teeth absent;
- pterygoid teeth present;
- posterior process of interclavicle not invested by sternum far anteriorly;
- caudal autotomy fracture plane present (except in Laemanctus), with transverse processes weak or absent;
- posterior coracoid fenestra present;
- sternal fontanelles very small or absent;
- sternal ribs: 4;
- postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs short;
- interparietal scale not enlarged;
- median dorsal scale row enlarged;
- gular fold complete medially;
- femoral pores absent;
- spinulate scale organs absent;
- nasal apparatus primitive; nasal vestibule short, simple, concha present, free;
- hemipenes unicapitate, unisulcate;
- colic septa absent.
Related Taxa
List of genera:
Böhme, W. (1975)
Indizien für natürliche Parthenogenese beim
Helmbasilisken, Basiliscus basiliscus (Linnaeus 1758).
Salamandra 11: 77-83
Frost,D.E. & Etheridge,R.E. (1989)
A Phylogenetic Analysis and Taxonomy of Iguanian Lizards
(Reptilia: Squamata)
Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Misc. Publ. 81
Lang,M. (1989)
Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Patterns of Basiliscine
Iguanians
(Reptilia: Squamata: "Iguanidae")
Bonner Zool. Monograph. 28; 172 pp.
Maturana, H. R. (1962)
A study of the species of the genus Basiliscus.
Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. No. 128, 34 pp.
McCOY, C. J. (1968)
A review of the genus Laemanctus (Reptilia: Iguanidae).
Copeia 1968: 665-78.
Vieira, G. H. C., Colli, G. R. & Báo, S. N.
(2005)
Phylogenetic relationships of corytophanid lizards (Iguania,
Squamata, Reptilia) based on partitioned and total evidence analyses
of sperm morphology, gross morphology, and DNA data.
Zoologica Scripta 34 (6): 605-625.