Non-Anguimorph Lizards of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene Of

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Non-Anguimorph Lizards of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene Of East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2014 Non-anguimorph Lizards of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene of Florida and Implications for the Reorganization of the North American Herpetofauna Kevin Chovanec East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Biodiversity Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, and the Paleontology Commons Recommended Citation Chovanec, Kevin, "Non-anguimorph Lizards of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene of Florida and Implications for the Reorganization of the North American Herpetofauna" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2384. https://dc.etsu.edu/ etd/2384 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Non-anguimorph Lizards of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene of Florida and Implications for the Reorganization of the North American Herpetofauna ________________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Geosciences East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Geosciences ________________________ by Kevin Robert Chovanec May 2014 ________________________ Blaine W. Schubert, Chair Jim I. Mead Steven C. Wallace Keywords: biogeography, Squamata, provincialism, Neotropical, niche conservatism 1 ABSTRACT Non-anguimorph Lizards of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene of Florida and Implications for the Reorganization of the North American Herpetofauna by Kevin R. Chovanec Paleokarst deposits from the Oligo-Miocene of northern Florida preserve undescribed herpetofaunal remains that fill important temporal and geographic gaps in our understanding of Cenozoic lizard evolution. Here I describe and discuss the non- anguimorph lizard diversity of the Brooksville 2 (Ar2) and Miller (He1) local faunas to test for patterns of regional and latitudinal provincialism in the contemporary North American record. Collectively, the sites are significant for documenting 1) extralimital occurrences of the tropical clades Anolis and Corytophaninae, 2) a substantial temporal range extension of the modern southeastern endemic Rhineuridae, 3) the earliest record of eublepharid gekkotans from North America, and 4) the early Miocene arrival of “cnemidophorine” teiids from South America. This work complements recent studies of older, Eocene lizards by others and lends paleontological support to aspects of the tropical conservatism hypothesis: lineages now confined to the tropics were present at higher latitudes when megathermal climates were more extensive. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Drs. Blaine Schubert, Jim Mead, and Wally “Steven” Wallace for their guidance, patience, and support. Fellow graduate students helped shape this endeavor into the experience that it has been. Jeff Martin, in particular, has been a dependable source of useful and not-so-useful discussion. He also fixed my car and helped make significant improvements to my oral presentation; I feel compelled to thank him on behalf of my audience for the latter. Mark Hutchinson provided some encouraging words at the start of my program that were (and still are) much appreciated. Richard Hulbert and Kenneth Krysko of the Florida Museum of Natural History facilitated access to fossil and modern specimens under their care, and Andreas Kerner kindly donated material from the Miller locality. Not a single aspect of this project would have been possible without the help of Sandy Swift. Sandy showed me the art of picking and sorting, taught me much of what I know of small vertebrate anatomy, and tried her best to get me to produce the same kinds of high-quality figures that she does. My questions were always met with enthusiasm, and her curiosity has been infectious. She filled equally important roles of mentor and total distraction, so thanks to her for being a source of chocolate and of motivation. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................3 TABLE OF CONTENTS .....................................................................................................4 TABLE OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................9 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................11 2. NON-ANGUIMORPH LIZARDS OF THE BROOKSVILLE 2 LOCAL FAUNA .....18 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 18 Anolis sp. ....................................................................................................................... 19 Referred Material........................................................................................................19 Description .................................................................................................................19 Dentary. ................................................................................................................. 19 Maxilla. ................................................................................................................. 23 Braincase. .............................................................................................................. 26 Frontal. .................................................................................................................. 30 Prefrontal............................................................................................................... 32 Postorbital. ............................................................................................................ 33 Quadrate. ............................................................................................................... 34 Remarks ......................................................................................................................35 cf. Anolis sp. .................................................................................................................. 44 Referred Material........................................................................................................44 Description .................................................................................................................44 4 Dentary. ................................................................................................................. 44 Remarks ......................................................................................................................47 Iguanidae gen. et sp. indet. ........................................................................................... 48 Referred Material........................................................................................................48 Description .................................................................................................................48 Dentary. ................................................................................................................. 48 Remarks ......................................................................................................................51 Iguaninae gen. et sp. indet. ........................................................................................... 52 Referred Material........................................................................................................52 Description .................................................................................................................52 Dentary. ................................................................................................................. 52 Remarks ......................................................................................................................54 Eublepharidae gen. et sp. indet. .................................................................................... 57 Referred Material........................................................................................................57 Description .................................................................................................................57 Maxilla. ................................................................................................................. 57 Dentary. ................................................................................................................. 62 Remarks ......................................................................................................................62 Rhineuridae gen. et sp. indet. ........................................................................................ 64 Referred Material........................................................................................................64 Description .................................................................................................................64 Dentary. ................................................................................................................
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