Ardeosauridae

Ardeosauridae is an extinct family of lizards known from the Late Jurassic of Germany and North America^[1] and Early Cretaceous of Mongolia, with other potential species elsewhere from Europe and Asia over the same time period.^[2]

Ardeosauridae Temporal range: Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Ardeosaurus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	†Ardeosauridae Camp, 1923

The position of this family is debated; they are often recovered as gekkonomorphs,^[1][3] but other studies have found them to be basal squamates, whereas others have found them to be the basalmost members of the Scincoidea or Iguania.^[4][5]

The following genera are known:^[6][7][5][1]

• †Ardeosaurus Meyer, 1855
•  ? †Chometokadmon Costa, 1864
• †Gurvelus Alifanov, 2019
• †Helioscopos Meyer et al. 2023
• †Limnoscansor Meyer et al. 2023
•  ? †Palaeolacerta Cocude-Michel, 1961
• †?Schoenesmahl Conrad, 2018
•  ? †Yabeinosaurus Endo and Shikama, 1942

References

1. Meyer, Dalton; Brownstein, Chase D.; Jenkins, Kelsey M.; Gauthier, Jacques A. (2023-11-29). "A Morrison stem gekkotan reveals gecko evolution and Jurassic biogeography". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 290 (2011). doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.2284. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 10685121.
2. Alifanov, V. R. (May 20, 2019). "Lizards of the Families Eoxantidae, Ardeosauridae, Globauridae, and Paramacellodidae (Scincomorpha) from the Aptian–Albian of Mongolia". Paleontological Journal. 53 (1): 74–88. doi:10.1134/s0031030119010039. ISSN 0031-0301.
3. Simões, Tiago R.; Caldwell, Michael W.; Nydam, Randall L.; Jiménez-Huidobro, Paulina (2016). "Osteology, phylogeny, and functional morphology of two Jurassic lizard species and the early evolution of scansoriality in geckoes". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. doi:10.1111/zoj.12487. ISSN 0024-4082.
4. Tałanda, Mateusz (2018-03-25). "An exceptionally preserved Jurassic skink suggests lizard diversification preceded fragmentation of Pangaea". Palaeontology. 61 (5): 659–677. doi:10.1111/pala.12358. ISSN 0031-0239.
5. Bolet, Arnau; Stubbs, Thomas L; Herrera-Flores, Jorge A; Benton, Michael J (2022-05-03). Zhu, Min; Perry, George H; Zhu, Min (eds.). "The Jurassic rise of squamates as supported by lepidosaur disparity and evolutionary rates". eLife. 11: e66511. doi:10.7554/eLife.66511. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 9064307.
6. "IRMNG - Ardeosauridae Camp, 1923 †". www.irmng.org. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
7. Conrad, Jack L (2017-12-18). "A new lizard (Squamata) was the last meal of Compsognathus (Theropoda: Dinosauria) and is a holotype in a holotype". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 183 (3): 584–634. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx055. ISSN 0024-4082.