Fossil lizards from the Jurassic Kota Formation of India

Abstract

The Mesozoic lizard fauna of Gondwana is virtually unknown. We report here on a lizard assemblage from the Upper Member of the Kota Formation of peninsular India, usually considered to be of Early-Middle Jurassic age. The dominant form, Bharatagama rebbanensis, gen. et sp. nov., has a predominantly acrodont dentition. Comparison with living and extinct taxa suggests that this new genus is a primitive acrodont iguanian distinct from the Cretaceous priscagamids. It predates known records of iguanian lizards by some 80 Ma, and provides evidence that iguanians had begun to diversify before the break-up of Pangea. A second fully pleurodont taxon is known from the same deposit. It is tentatively attributed to the Squamata but is too fragmentary for further determination.