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Teiidae
lizard family
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annotated classification
- In lizard: Annotated classification
Family Teiidae (racerunners, whiptails, and tegus) Osteoderms absent, supratemporal fossa open. Late Cretaceous to present. New World only, primarily in tropics and subtropics. Great variation in the family, including large terrestrial predators (Tupinambis), large semiaquatic snail eaters (Dracaena), and lacertid-like “racerunners” (Cnemidophorus).
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distribution
- In reptile: Central and South America
The lizard family Teiidae, though represented in the United States by the racerunners and whiptails of the genus Cnemidophorus, is primarily tropical, and its area of greatest biological diversity begins in Central America with the large, conspicuous, and active ameivas (Ameiva). The Gymnophthalmidae (or microteiids), close relatives of…
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