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Reptiles Database
Order Squamata
Suborder Sauria
Family Opluridae / Subfamily Oplurinae
This family was previously (and is still sometimes) treated as a subfamily of the Iguanidae: Oplurinae. However, Frost and Etheridge (1989) raised the group to family status and this has been widely accepted.
Oplurus fierinensis
© Wayne van Devender
Appearance: Similar to South-American tropidurids - members of the genus Oplurus even have been united with the genus Tropidurus! Several species have moderately or greatly spiny tails.
Distribution: Madagascar, Comoro Islands.
Habitat: subhumid to arid areas; Chalarodon: terrestrial, Oplurus: rock-dwelling or arboreal
Size: Chalarodon: 20 cm, Oplurus: 40 cm.
Reproduction: oviparous (egg-laying)
Zoological definition (according to Frost & Etheridge, 1989):
- maxillae not meeting anteromedially behind palatal portion of premaxilla;
- lacrimal foramen not enlarged;
- skull roof strongly rugose;
- jugal and squamosal not broadly juxtaposed;
- parietal roof trapezoidal;
- parietal foramen in frontoparietal suture;
- supratemporal sits on medial side 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 poorly developed or absent;
- anterior surangular foramen above posteriormost extent of dentary;
- Meckel's groove variably fused or not;
- splenial relatively short anteriorly;
- dentary and maxillary teeth pleurodont, not fused to underlying bone in adults;
- palatine teeth present on some Oplurus, otherwise absent;
- pterygoid teeth present;
- posterior process of interclavicle not invested by sternum far anteriorly;
- caudal autotomy fracture plane present, with transverse processes anterior to fracture planes;
- posterior coracoid fenestra absent;
- sternal fontanelles very small or absent;
- sternal ribs: 3 or 4;
- postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs appear in the form of paired splints, isolated from the dorsal ribs and not confluent medially;
- interparietal scale not enlarged;
- mid-dorsal scale row absent (Oplurus) or present, enlarged (Chalarodon)
- gular fold complete medially;
- femoral pores absent;
- spinulate scale organs present;
- primitive nasal apparatus; nasal vestibule relatively short, straight, concha present, free;
- hemipenes unicapitate, unisulcate;
- colic septa absent.
Related taxa
List of genera:
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
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
Titus, T. A.;Frost, D. R. (1996)
Molecular homology assessment and phylogeny in the lizard family
Opluridae (Squamata: Iguania).
Mol Phylogenet Evol 6 (1): 49-62