''Pristiguana'' 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 ...

of possible iguanian lizard from the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

Marília Formation of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

.''Pristiguana''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...

.org 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 ...

is ''P. brasiliensis''.

Description

''Pristiguana'' was discovered in the Bauru Group of

. Its discoverers said, in 1973, that it is originally considered as the oldest fossil lizard in the family

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 ...

. It resembles living primitive South American iguanids in some features, and shares some features with teiids. However, in 2012 study, phylogenic analysis found that it was a primitive iguanian forming a clade with ''

Huehuecuetzpalli ''Huehuecuetzpalli'' (translating to "the ancient lizard" in Nahuatl) is an extinct genus of lizard from the Early Cretaceous (late Albian) Tlayúa Formation, a Lagerstätte near Tepexi de Rodríguez, Central Mexico. One species, ''H. mixectus' ...

'' (which is considered as stem-squamate in more recent studies''''). Later studies questioned its pleurodontan and iguanian affinity. The specimen is apparently lost.

Description

References

Further reading