Pleurodonta (from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

'' lateral teeth'', is an clade of lizards reference to the position of the teeth on the jaw) is one of the two subdivisions of

Iguania Iguania is an infraorder of squamate reptiles that includes iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and New World lizards like anoles and phrynosomatids. Using morphological features as a guide to evolutionary relationships, the Iguania are believed ...

, the other being Acrodonta ('' teeth on the top f the jaw'). Pleurodonta includes all families previously split from

Iguanidae The Iguanidae is a family of lizards composed of the iguanas, chuckwallas, and their prehistoric relatives, including the widespread green iguana. Taxonomy Iguanidae is thought to be the sister group to the Crotaphytidae, collared lizards (fam ...

''sensu lato'' (

Corytophanidae Corytophanidae is a family of iguanian lizards, also called casquehead lizards or helmeted lizards, endemic to the New World. Nine species of casquehead lizards from three genera are recognized. Geographic range Corytophanids are found from Mex ...

Crotaphytidae The Crotaphytidae, or collared lizards, are a family (biology), family of desert-dwelling reptiles native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Alternatively they are recognized as a subfamily, Crotaphytinae, within the clade Ple ...

Hoplocercidae Hoplocercidae are a family of lizards native to the tropical forests, woodlands and savanna-like habitats of Central America, Central and South America. Alternatively they are recognized as a subfamily, Hoplocercinae. 20 species in two genera are ...

Opluridae The Opluridae, or Madagascan iguanas, are a family of moderately-sized lizards native to Madagascar and Grande Comore. There are eight species across two genera, with most of them being under '' Oplurus''. The other genus, '' Chalarodon'', is eas ...

Polychrotidae The Polychrotidae family (sometimes classified as the Polychrotinae subfamily instead) of iguanian lizards contains the living genus '' Polychrus'' (commonly called bush anoles) and the extinct genus '' Afairiguana''. The family Polychrotidae was ...

, etc.), whereas Acrodonta includes

Agamidae Agamidae is a family containing 582 species in 64 genera of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few locations in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically ...

and Chamaeleonidae. The name Pleurodonta was first used by paleontologist and herpetologist

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontology, paleontologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist, herpetology, herpetologist, and ichthyology, ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker fam ...

in 1864, although he used it in a different sense than it is used today. Because of this difference, the name Iguanoidea has been proposed as a replacement for Pleurodonta in

phylogenetic nomenclature Phylogenetic nomenclature is a method of nomenclature for taxa in biology that uses phylogenetic definitions for taxon names as explained below. This contrasts with the traditional method, by which taxon names are defined by a '' type'', which c ...

. ''Pleurodonta'' is also a synonym of

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

genus ''

Pleurodonte ''Pleurodonte'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the subfamily Pleurodontinae of the family Pleurodontidae.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Pleurodonte Fischer von Waldheim, 1807. Access ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7204768 Iguanomorpha Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope