Lacertibaenia
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| Lacertibaenia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Lepidosauria |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Clade: | Lacertoidea |
| Clade: | Lacertibaenia Vidal & Hedges, 2005 |
| Subgroups | |
Lacertibaenia is a clade of squamate reptiles that unites the worm lizards (Amphisbaenia) with the true lizards (Lacertidae). The clade was named by Vidal & Hedges (2005), who recovered the group from analyses of nine nuclear protein-coding genes within their broader clade Laterata (Lacertoidea).[1] Subsequent molecular datasets with broader gene and taxon sampling have repeatedly recovered amphisbaenians as sister to lacertids, corroborating the monophyly of Lacertibaenia.[2][3] A 2024 satellite-DNA study further supported Lacertibaenia as a coherent lineage.[4]
An important fossil relevant to Lacertibaenia is the Messel fossil Cryptolacerta hassiaca, which Müller et al. (2011) interpreted as shedding light on amphisbaenian origins and supporting a close relationship with lacertids.[5] Additional paleontological work has proposed Late Cretaceous stem-amphisbaenians (Slavoia) and explored trait evolution associated with fossoriality in worm lizards.[6][7]