Anguimorpha
suborder of squamate reptiles (Squamata)
The Anguimorpha is a suborder of squamates. The group was named by Fürbringer in 1900 to include all autarchoglossans closer to Varanus and Anguis than Scincus. These lizards, along with iguanians and snakes, constitute the proposed "venom clade" Toxicofera of all venomous reptiles.
Evolution
The oldest widely accepted member of Anguimorpha is Dorsetisaurus from the Late Jurassic of Europe and North America. In 2022, the genus Cryptovaranoides was described from the latest Triassic (Rhaetian) of England. Cryptovaranoides was recovered in the study as a crown-group anguimorph, and therefore the oldest crown group-squamate, 35 million years older than any previously known crown-group squamate. However, a 2023 study found that Cryptovaranoides most likely represents an archosauromorph that was only distantly related to squamates.
Families
Anguidae
There are 9 genera found within the Anguidae family. They are characterized by being heavily armored with non-overlapping scales, and almost all having well-developed ventrolateral folds (excluding Anguis). Anguidae members can, however, be somewhat difficult to identify in their family, as members can be limbed or limbless, and can be both viviparous and oviparous.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q929105. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1900, 2022 and 2023.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anguimorpha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.