Reptiles Database

Order Squamata
Suborder Sauria

Family Iguanidae (sensu Frost et al.) - Iguanas


This family traditionally encompassed a large number of genera and species. However, Frost and coworkers redefined the family in 1989 and again in 2001 to include only the genera given below, while assigning the other genera to separate families. Subsequent authors accepted the new arrangement to various degrees. Nevertheless, some authors still use the previous classification that includes the Crotaphytidae, Hoplocercidae, Opluridae, Phrynosomatidae, Polychrotidae, and Tropiduridae in the family Iguanidae.

Iguana iguana, © Ingo Kober

Distribution: Americas from the USA south to Paraguay, Galapagos islands (Amblyrhynchus, Conolophus), West Indies (Iguana, Cyclura), Fiji Islands (Brachylophus).

Habitat: terrestrial (Dipsosaurus, Cyclura), rock-dwelling (Sauromalus, Ctenosaura, Conolophus), or arboreal (Iguana, Brachylophus), marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus) spent a significant amount of time in the sea foraging on algae.

Size: ranging from 14 cm snout-vent length (Dipsosaurus) to more than 70 centimeters (Cyclura)

Food: younger iguanas feed on insects and other small animals, but later become predominantly herbivorous feeding on leaves, fruit, and other plants.Amblyrhynchus feeds on marine algae.

Reproduction: all species are egg-laying.

Relationships: related to chameleons and agamas which are combined with the iguanids in the superfamily Iguania.

List of Genera (fide Frost and Etheridge, 1989)

The family also contains three fossil genera, Armandisaurus , Lapitiguana, and Pumila.

Phylogenetic relationships ("tree") of "Iguanian" lizards (after Schulte et al. 2003). Note that not all Iguanian genera have been included in this study (e.g. Iguana is missing). Click on tree to download original figure as pdf. Original file courtesy of J. Schulte.

References:

Burghardt,G.M. & Rand,A.S., eds. (1982)
Iguanas of the World,
Noyes Publications, Park Ridge, NJ (USA)
ISBN 0-8155-0917-0

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

Frost, D.R.; Etheridge, R.; Janies, D. & Titus, T.A. (2001)
Total evidence, sequence alignment, evolution of Polychrotid lizards, and a reclassification of the Iguania (Squamata: Iguania).
American Museum Novitates 3343: 38 pp.

de Queiroz,K. (1987)
Phylogenetic Systematics of Iguanine Lizards - A Comparative Osteological Study
University of California Publ. in Zoology, Vol. 118
XII + 203 pp.
ISBN 0-520-09730-0

Norell, Mark & De Queiroz, Kevin (1991)
The earliest iguanine lizard (Reptilia, Squamata) and its bearing on iguanine phylogeny.
American Museum Novitates (2997): 16 pp.

Schulte, James A., II., John Pablo Valladares and Allan Larson (2003)
Phylogenetic relationships within iguanidae inferred using molecular and morphological data and a phylogenetic taxonomy of iguanian lizards.
Herpetologica 59 (3): 399-419

Wiens, J. J., and B. D. Hollingsworth. (2000)
War of the iguanas: conflicting molecular and morphological phylogenies and long-branch attraction in iguanid lizards.
Systematic Biology 49:143&endash;159 [pdf]

Further Information: