A lizard of the genus Stenocercus (Iguania: Pleurodonta) from the Pliocene of Argentina

Abstract

The Pliocene record of iguanian pleurodont lizards of South America is scarce, although it is plentiful during the Miocene, including extant genera. Here we describe a partial dentary from the Pliocene Saldungaray Formation of the southwestern Buenos Aires province, Argentina. It is assigned to the extant tropidurid Stenocercus. This is the first fossil attributed to this genus and together with Uquiasaurus from northern Argentina are the only pleurodont iguanians from this age.