Paleoanguimorpha is a clade of anguimorphs comprising

Shinisauria Shinisauria is a clade or evolutionary grouping of anguimorph lizards that includes the living Chinese crocodile lizard ''Shinisaurus'' and several of its closest extinct relatives. Shinisauria was named in 2008 as a stem-based taxon to include ...

(represented today by shinisaurids) and Goannasauria (represented today by Varanoidea which includes the families Lanthanotidae and Varanidae). Morphological studies in the past also classified helodermatids and pythonomorphs with the

varanoid Varanoidea is a superfamily of lizards, including the well-known family Varanidae (the monitors and goannas). Also included in the Varanoidea are the Lanthanotidae (earless monitor lizards), and the extinct Palaeovaranidae. Throughout their l ...

s in the clade Platynota, while the Chinese crocodile lizard was classified as a xenosaurid. Current molecular work finds no support in these groupings and instead has found the helodermatids more related to Diploglossa in the sister clade Neoanguimorpha, while the Chinese crocodile lizard is the closet living relative to varanoids. Pythonomorphs represented by

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

s today are not closely related to varanoids and are instead a sister lineage to Anguimorpha and Iguania in the clade Toxicofera. Below is the phylogeny of the paleoanguimorph lineages after Pyron ''et al.'' (2013):

References

Anguimorpha {{lizard-stub

See also

References