''Anniealexandria'' is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

amphisbaenia Amphisbaenia (called amphisbaenians or worm lizards) is a group of typically legless lizards, comprising over 200 extant species. Amphisbaenians are characterized by their long bodies, the reduction or loss of the limbs, and rudimentary eyes. A ...

n lizard known by the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''Anniealexandria gansi'' from the earliest

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

of Wyoming. ''Anniealexandria'' is the only known member of the family

Bipedidae Bipedidae is a family of amphisbaenians that includes the extant genus '' Bipes'' represented by three species from Baja California and the southern coast of Mexico and the extinct genus '' Anniealexandria'' represented by one species that lived ...

in the fossil record, which otherwise only includes the extant genus '' Bipes'' from Mexico. It was named in 2009 in honor of

Annie Montague Alexander Annie Montague Alexander (29 December 1867 – 10 September 1950) was an Exploration, explorer, Natural history, naturalist, Paleontology, paleontological collector, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She founded the University of California Museu ...

, founder of the

University of California Museum of Paleontology The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) is a paleontology museum located on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The museum is within the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB), designed by George W. Kelham ...

. Remains of ''Anniealexandria'' are known only from a single fossil locality in the

Bighorn Basin The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bigho ...

called Castle Gardens, but within the locality its fossils are common in the

Willwood Formation The Willwood Formation is a sedimentary sequence deposited during the late Paleocene to early Eocene, or Clarkforkian, Wasatchian and Bridgerian in the NALMA classification.Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

and earliest Eocene. Below is a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

from Longrich ''et al.'' (2015) showing the phylogenetic relationships of ''Anniealexandria'':

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20311267 Amphisbaenia Eocene lepidosaurs Eocene reptiles of North America Lizard genera Prehistoric reptile genera Fossil taxa described in 2009 Taxa named by Krister T. Smith