Morunasaurus Dunn 1933

Torres-Carvajal, Omar, Etheridge, Richard & Queiroz, Kevin De, 2011, A systematic revision of Neotropical lizards in the clade Hoplocercinae (Squamata: Iguania), Zootaxa 2752, pp. 1-44 : 33

Morunasaurus Dunn 1933

Proposed standard English name: manticores Proposed standard Spanish name: mantícoras

Hoplocercus (part) O’Shaughnessy (1881:244); Boulenger (1885:200); Burt & Burt (1933:26). Morunasaurus Dunn (1933:75) ; Peters & Donoso-Barros (1970:204). Type species (by original designation): Morunasaurus groi Dunn.

Definition. Morunasaurus Dunn 1933 , converted clade name, is here defined as referring to the most inclusive crown clade containing Morunasaurus groi Dunn 1933 , but not Hoplocercus spinosus Fitzinger 1843 , or Enyalioides heterolepis ( Bocourt 1874) , or Enyalioides oshaughnessyi ( Boulenger 1885) . Reference phylogeny: Figure 3 in Torres-Carvajal & de Queiroz (2009), in which it is assumed that Morunasaurus groi is part of a clade that also includes M. annularis and M. peruvianus , but none of the other taxa in that tree.

Diagnosis. Morunasaurus can be distinguished from Hoplocercus by having a tail that is roughly circular (rather than depressed) in cross section and longer than the body (i.e., tail length> SVL). It differs from both Hoplocercus and Enyalioides in having projecting scales (spines) on thigh, shin, and pes (projecting scales also present in E. heterolepis , but not as spines); a dentary bone extending posteriorly above the anterior surangular foramen ( Wiens & Etheridge 2003), and in lacking a parietal eye. Morunasaurus also differs from Enyalioides in that the posterior whorl of each caudal segment is composed of greatly enlarged, projecting, spinous scales at least two times as large as the scales of the immediately anterior whorl.

Composition. Three species: Morunasaurus annularis ( O'Shaughnessy 1881) , M. groi Dunn 1933 , and M. peruvianus ( Köhler 2003) .

Remarks. The phylogenetic position of Morunasaurus relative to other hoplocercine taxa remains unclear. Etheridge & de Queiroz (1988) inferred a phylogeny in which Morunasaurus was paraphyletic and deeply nested within Enyalioides ; Wiens & Etheridge (2003) found Morunasaurus to be either paraphyletic, or monophyletic and sister to Hoplocercus spinosus . Torres-Carvajal & de Queiroz (2009) found Morunasaurus to be nested within Enyalioides , but they could not reject the monophyly of Enyalioides statistically; however, their study did not include M. groi (type species), or nuclear gene sequences from M. peruvianus . If M. groi is not closely related to M. annularis and M. peruvianus , then according to our phylogenetic definition, only groi (the type species) will be included in Morunasaurus .

The vernacular name "manticores" ("mantícoras") refers to animals that inhabit mountains near the Moruna (the basis of the name Morunasaurus ) in E. R. R. Eddison's fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Caudal segments from the anterior third of the tail of ten species of Hoplocercinae in lateral view. (A) Enyalioides cofanorum, (B) E. heterolepis, (C) E. laticeps, (D) E. microlepis, (E) E. oshaughnessyi, (F) E. palpebralis, (G) E. praestabilis, (H) E. rubrigularis, (I) E. touzeti, and (J) Morunasaurus annularis. Scale bars = 5 mm. Illustration by D. Paucar.