Reptiles Database

Order Squamata
Suborder Sauria

Family Hoplocercidae / Subfamily Hoplocercinae (Wood lizards, Clubtails)


This family was previously (and is still sometimes) treated as a subfamily of the Iguanidae. However, Frost and Etheridge (1989) raised the group to family status and this has been widely accepted.

photo: Enyalioides heterolepis
© Fernando Castro

Appearance: characteristic spiny tails

Distribution: Central and South America (from Panama to Peru).

Habitat: rain forest (Morunasaurus, Enyalioides), dry forest (Hoplocercus); mainly terrestrial; several species are known to use burrows in the ground.

Size: < 16 cm snout-vent length

Food: termites, locusts, beetles (Hoplocercus)

Behaviour: nocturnal (Hoplocercus); all Enyalioides species for which data are available are known to sleep on trunks and branches at night. E. cofanorum, E. palpebralis, and E. praestabilis have so far only been found on the ground by day although this may be biased by finding such specimens more easily.

Zoological definition (according to Frost & Etheridge, 1989):

  • maxillae not meeting anteromedially behind palatal portion of premaxilla;
  • lacrimal foramen enlarged;
  • skull roof strongly rugose, except in Hoplocercus and "Morunasaurus";
  • jugal and squamosal not broadly juxtaposed;
  • parietal roof trapezoidal;
  • parietal foramen in frontoparietal suture (absent in some "Morunasaurus";
  • 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;
  • labial blade of coronoid large;
  • anterior surangular foramen inferior to posteriormost extent of dentary;
  • Meckel's groove not fused;
  • splenial very large, penetrating far 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 Hoplocercus), with transverse processes anterior to fracture planes;
  • posterior coracoid fenestra absent (except in "Morunasaurus" annularis;
  • sternal fontanelles very small or absent;
  • sternal ribs: 4;
  • postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs long, confluent medially;
  • interparietal scale not enlarged;
  • mid-dorsal scale row present (except in "Morunasaurus" and Hoplocercus);
  • gular fold complete medially;
  • femoral pores present;
  • spinulate scale organs absent;
  • primitive nasal apparatus; nasal vestibule short, straight, concha present, free;
  • hemipenes unicapitate, unisulcate;
  • colic septa absent.

Related taxa


List of Genera:

Phylogenetic relationships

Phylogenetic relationships of hoplocercid lizards (boldface taxa) based on mixed scaling of meristic characters. See Wiens & Etheridge (2003) for details. Image reproduced by permission.

References:

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

Macey,-J-Robert; Larson,-Allan; Ananjeva,-Natalia-B; Papenfuss,-Theodore-J (1997)
Evolutionary shifts in three major structural features of the mitochondrial genome among iguanian lizards.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR EVOLUTION 44 (6): 660-674

Wiens, John J. and Richard E. Etheridge (2003)
Phylogenetic relationships of Hoplocercid lizards: coding and combining meristic, morphometric, and polymorphic data using step matrices.
Herpetologica 59 (3): 375-398

Further Information: