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.

Food:

Behaviour:

Reproduction: oviparous (egg-laying)

Related taxa: see the tree of iguanid lizards for relationships to other families.

Zoological definition (according to Frost & Etheridge, 1989): (1) maxillae not meeting anteromedially behind palatal portion of premaxilla; (2) lacrimal foramen not enlarged; (3) skull roof strongly rugose; (4) jugal and squamosal not broadly juxtaposed; (5) parietal roof trapezoidal; (6) parietal foramen in frontoparietal suture; (7) supratemporal sits on medial side of supratemproal process of parietal; (8) nuchal endolymphatic sacs do not penetrate nuchal musculature; (9) dentary not expanded onto labial face of coronoid; (10) labial blade of coronoid poorly developed or absent; (11) anterior surangular foramen above posteriormost extent of dentary; (12) Meckel's groove variably fused or not; (13) splenial relatively short anteriorly; (14) dentary and maxillary teeth pleurodont, not fused to underlying bone in adults; (15) palatine teeth present on some Oplurus, otherwise absent; (16) pterygoid teeth present; (17) posterior process of interclavicle not invested by sternum far anteriorly; (18) caudal autotomy fracture plane present, with transverse processes anterior to fracture planes; (19) posterior coracoid fenestra absent; (20) sternal fontanelles very small or absent; (21) sternal ribs: 3 or 4; (22) postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs appear in the form of paired splints, isolated from the dorsal ribs and not confluent medially; (23) interparietal scale not enlarged; (24) mid-dorsal scale row absent (Oplurus) or present, enlarged (Chalarodon) (25) gular fold complete medially; (26) femoral pores absent; (27) spinulate scale organs present; (28) primitive nasal apparatus; nasal vestibule relatively short, straight, concha present, free; (29) hemipenes unicapitate, unisulcate; (30) colic septa absent.

List of Genera:

• Chalarodon
• Oplurus

Click on genus to get an up-to-date list of species. Use the Search form for more sophisticated searches.

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

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