The Opluridae, or Madagascan iguanas, are a family of moderately sized lizards native to Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

. There are seven species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 in two genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

, with most of the species being in Oplurus. The family includes species that live amongst rocks, some that live in tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s, and one that inhabits sand dunes. All of the species lay eggs

Egg (biology)

An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...

, and have teeth that resemble those of the true iguana

Iguana

Iguana is a herbivorous genus of lizard native to tropical areas of Central America and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his book Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena...

s.

A study of mitochondria

Mitochondrion

In cell biology, a mitochondrion is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. These organelles range from 0.5 to 1.0 micrometers in diameter...

l DNA sequences has dated the split between Opluridae and Iguanidae (within which Opluridae is sometimes classified as the subfamily Oplurinae) at about 165 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic

Middle Jurassic

The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age are called the Dogger....

. The study supported the monophyly of the expanded Iguanidae, and put Oplurinae in the basal

Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group forms an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...

 position. This dating is consistent with a vicariant

Allopatric speciation

Allopatric speciation or geographic speciation is speciation that occurs when biological populations of the same species become isolated due to geographical changes such as mountain building or social changes such as emigration...

 origin of the Madagascan iguanians, since Madagascar is believed to have separated from Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 (during the breakup of Gondwana) around 140 million years ago.

Species

Family Opluridae

• Genus Chalarodon
  Chalarodon
  Chalarodon is a genus of Malagasy terrestrial iguanian lizard. Its only species is Chalarodon madagascariensis.Its Malagasy relatives are the iguanians of the genus Oplurus.It is common in some of the drier areas of Madagascar....
  
  
  • Chalarodon madagascariensis
• Genus Oplurus
  Oplurus
  Oplurus is a genus of Malagasy iguanian lizard, most of which are rock-dwelling terrestrial species. Only Oplurus cyclurus is arboreal....
  
  
  • Oplurus cuvieri
    Oplurus cuvieri
    The Collared iguanid lizard, Oplurus cuvieri is an arboreal Malagasy iguana, the largest of six Oplurus species. They are found in the western tropical forests of Madagascar and on Grand Comore Island. They have a mostly carnivorous diet and their breeding is timed with the rainy season.-External...
    
    
  • Oplurus cyclurus
  • Oplurus fierinensis
  • Oplurus grandidieri
  • Oplurus quadrimaculatus
  • Oplurus saxicola