Mesoamericus, Schools & Hedges, 2021

Schools, Molly & Hedges, S. Blair, 2021, Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the Neotropical forest lizards (Squamata, Diploglossidae), Zootaxa 4974 (2), pp. 201-257 : 240

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4974.2.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0CCA430E-5601-42CB-847F-87B22BFD3112

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4891088

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/DA66BA10-FFF9-FFDE-0DF1-0A4F05D8D385

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Mesoamericus
status

gen. nov.

Genus Mesoamericus gen. nov.

Central American Forest Lizards

Fig. 27 View FIGURE 27

Type species. Celestus bilobatus O’Shaughnessy, 1874:257 .

Diagnosis. Species of Mesoamericus gen. nov. have (1) claw sheath, present, (2) contact between the nasal and rostral scales, present, (3) scales in contact with the nasal scale, six, (4) postnasal scales, two, (5) position of the nostril in the nasal scale, posterior, (6) keels on dorsal body scales, absent, (7) digits per limb, five, (8) longest toe lamellae, 11–18, (9) dorsal scale rows, n/a (10) relative head width, 12.0–14.0, (11) relative rostral height, 65.0– 67.0, (12) relative frontonasal length, n/a, (13) relative interparietal distance, n/a, (14) relative axilla-groin distance, n/a.

From Siderolamprus , we distinguish Mesoamericus gen. nov. by the claw sheath (present versus absent in Siderolamprus ) and relative rostral height (65.0–67.0 versus 44.7–63.9).

Content. One species ( Table 3 View TABLE 3 ): Mesoamericus bilobatus .

Distribution. Mesoamericus gen. nov. occurs in Central America ( Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama) ( Fig. 27 View FIGURE 27 ).

Etymology. The generic name is a masculine noun derived from the name for the region (Mesoamerica) where it occurs.

Remarks. Mesoamericus gen. nov. is a monophyletic clade that has a support value of 100% in Bayesian and ML analyses ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ). The large molecular divergence among populations of M. bilobatus , with some splits as old as 5 Mya ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ), suggests the presence of three undefined species.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Reptilia

Order

Squamata

Family

Diploglossidae

GBIF Dataset (for parent article) Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF