Archaerhineura

Archaerhineura
Temporal range: Paleocene, 57 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Rhineuridae
Genus: Archaerhineura
Longrich et al., 2015
Type species
Archaerhineura mephitis
Longrich et al., 2015

Archaerhineura is an extinct genus of amphisbaenian lizard in the family Rhineuridae. The only species is Archaerhineura mephitis, named in 2015 on the basis of a single fragment of the lower jaw from the Polecat Bench Formation in Park County, Wyoming, which dates to the late Paleocene (about 57 to 58 million years ago). Archaerhineura is one of the oldest amphisbaenians and was part of an evolutionary radiation of Rhineuridae in the Paleocene several million years after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (the only surviving member of Rhineuridae is Rhineura floridana, which lives in Florida). This rhineurid radiation coincided with the radiation of another group of amphisbaenians, Amphisbaeniformes, which includes the still-extant families Blanidae and Amphisbaenidae. The presence of Archaerhineura and other Paleocene rhineurids in the western United States indicates that amphisbaenians, which would later have a nearly global distribution, originated in North America.[1]

Below is a cladogram showing the phylogenetic relationships of Archaerhineura and other amphisbaenians:[1]

Amphisbaenia
Rhineuridae

Plesiorhineura tsentasai



Archaerhineura mephitis




Jepsibaena minor





Spathorhynchus natronicus





Spathorhynchus fossorium



Dyticonastis rensbergeri





Hyporhina antiqua




Hyporhina tertia



Hyporhina galbreathi








Hadrorhineura hibbardi



Rhineura wilsoni



UCM skull




Protorhineura hatcherii




Rhineura sepultra




Rhineura marslandensis



Rhineura floridana










Chthonophidae

Chthonophis subterraneus




Oligodontosaurus spp.


Amphisbaeniformes


Blanidae




Anniealexandria gansi



Bipes spp.






Cadea blanoides




Todrasaurus gheerbrandti


Afrobaenia


Trogonophis wiegmanni




Diplometopon zarudnyi



Agamodon anguliceps





Amphisbaenidae









References

  1. 1 2 Longrich, N. R.; Vinther, J.; Pyron, R. A.; Pisani, D.; Gauthier, J. A. (2015). "Biogeography of worm lizards (Amphisbaenia) driven by end-Cretaceous mass extinction". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282 (1806): 20143034. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.3034.


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