Lepidosauromorpha Flashcards
Orders in Lepidosauria
Order Squamata
Order Sphenodontidae
What does order Squamata consist of?
Lacertilia: lizards
Serpentenes: Snakes
Mosasauria: mosasaurs
Sphenodontidae
Tuatara; came up with a lizard body first
Clade Mosasauria
extinct, they got big but also small forms
Lizards (Lacertilia)
lots of variety, think gecko vs monitor lizard
explosive radiation
should be broken up into independent clades
Serpentes
late jurassic
survive extinction event
Mosasaurs
wouldn’t stop growing = dominated their prey - size is being selected for
predator-prey relationship driving this
Order Scleroglossa
Mosasaurus hoffmannii
Mosasaurus hoffmannii
considered to be largest marine reptile in the world
no evidence of size slowing down
bifurcated tongue - chemosensing (looking and acting like a lizard but in water)
Veranoids
NORBERT
occupy coastal environments = new niche space since most lizards weren’t occupying oceans
What is unique to veranoids (norbert)?
salt glands
Iguana have a response to salt in which they purge via sneezing
have a keel (lateral extension of tail) in order to deal with waves
List mosasaur spp in order from small to big
- Prognathodon spp
- Tylosaurus spp
- Mosasaurus hoffmannii
Family Helodermatidae
(Helamonsters)
swollen venom gland in lower jaw
tails = anatomically equivalent to camels hump
Tetrapodophis spp
snake with dinky fore and hind limbs
Serpentes
snakes, very special group of LIZARDS just modified
Family Boidae
big and hefty, used to be in NA but got too cold, yellow anaconda
Family Pythonidae
able to eat a whole adult male red kangaroo thanks to quadrate bone, ligaments and two mandible bones in lower jaw
Family Colubridae
typical snakes
rear fanged snakes - grooved tooth in rear of mouth with Devernoys gland w venom
boomslang venom - starts dissolving blood vessels - bleed out all capillaries = exsanguination
Family Elapidae
fixed front fanged snakes
neurotoxic venom
evolved protein that goes into diaphragm making smooth muscle response stop - doesn’t hurt, you just die an hour later
Family Viperidae
hinged fangs
largest of any snakes
venom strategy = protein lysis
bite is awful - chunk of you sloughs off
Family Crotalidae
pit vipers = hole in face for seeing heat
most derived advanced living reptiles
showed up in middle of mammals
