Tijubina, Cretaceous lizard from Brazil redescribed (free pdf)

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

From: Ben Creisler
bscreisler@gmail.com


A new advance online paper in Anais da Academia Brasileira de
Ciências. The pdf is free.


SIMOES, Tiago R. (2012)
Redescription of Tijubina pontei, an Early Cretaceous lizard
(Reptilia; Squamata) from the Crato Formation of Brazil.
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 84(1) (advance online publication)
ISSN 0001-3765
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/aabc/2012nahead/aop0112.pdf



The record of Gondwanan Mesozoic lizards is very poor. Among the few
species described for this region there is Tijubina pontei, an Early
Cretaceous lizard from the Crato Formation (late Aptian) of northeast
Brazil. Its description is very brief and lacks most of its diagnostic
characters and clear delimitation from other lizard species. Here, a
full redescription of the holotype is provided. T. pontei is
demonstrated to be a valid species and a new diagnosis is provided
with reference to Olindalacerta brasiliensis, a contemporary species
of the Crato Formation. It lacks the posteroventral and posterodorsal
processes of the dentary; the tibial/fbular length equals the femoral
length and its posterior dentary teeth are robust, cylindrically
based, unsculptured and bear no cuspids. The systematic position of T.
pontei still needs further clarifcation, but preliminary analyses
indicate that it lies in a rather basal position among  the Squamata,
similarly to O. brasiliensis.