Afairiguana


Afairiguana avius is an extinct iguanid lizard known from a nearly complete and articulated skeleton discovered in rocks of the Early Eocene-aged Green River Formation of Wyoming, United States. As of the initial description, the skeleton represents the oldest complete iguanian from the Western Hemisphere, and is the oldest representative of the extant iguanid family of anoles, Polychrotidae.

Description

Afairiguana is based on FMNH PR 2379, a skeleton collected from the Warfield Springs locality of the Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation. It was described in 2007 by Jack Conrad, Olivier Rieppel, and Lance Grande. The type species is A. avius. The genus is a combination of the Ancient Greek word for abstract (transl|grc|afairoconvert|2|cm|in

Paleoecology

Afairiguana is one of several lizards known from the Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation. This rock unit represents part of Fossil Lake, the smallest and shortest-lived of three prehistoric lake systems that make up the Green River Formation. The lake sediments include a volcanic ash dating to 51.66 million years ago, during the Early Eocene. The Warfield Springs locality may have been part of a delta system. Fossils are abundant in the rocks of Fossil Lake, and illustrate a diverse assemblage of plants, bivalves, snails, crustaceans, insects, rays, bony fish, salamanders, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodilians, birds, and mammals.