Pariguana

{{Short description|Extinct genus of lizards}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| taxon = Pariguana

| fossil_range = Late{{nbsp}}Cretaceous, {{fossil range|67}}

| authority = Longrich et al., 2012

| type_species = †Pariguana lancensis

| type_species_authority = Longrich et al., 2012

}}

Pariguana (meaning "near Iguana" in Greek) is an extinct genus of iguanomorph lizard from the Late Cretaceous of western North America. It is known from a single type species, Pariguana lancensis, named in 2012 on the basis of a partial lower jaw from the Lance Formation in eastern Wyoming. This jaw bone comes from a layer dated approximately 650,000 years before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Pariguana was originally considered as the oldest definitive iguanid pleurodontan from North America, and may represent the first stage of the iguanian evolutionary radiation from Asia into North America.{{cite journal | last1 = Longrich | first1 = Nicholas R. | last2 = Bhullar | first2 = Bhart-Anjan S. | last3 = Gauthier | first3 = Jacques A. | year = 2012 | title = Mass extinction of lizards and snakes at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 109 | issue = 52 | pages = 21396–401 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1211526110 | pmid=23236177 | pmc=3535637| bibcode = 2012PNAS..10921396L | doi-access = free }} However, later phylogenic analysis suggests that it is not pleurodontan although likely to be an iguanomorph.{{Cite journal |last1=DeMar |first1=David G. |last2=Conrad |first2=Jack L. |last3=Head |first3=Jason J. |last4=Varricchio |first4=David J. |last5=Wilson |first5=Gregory P. |date=2017-01-25 |title=A new Late Cretaceous iguanomorph from North America and the origin of New World Pleurodonta (Squamata, Iguania) |url=https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1902 |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=284 |issue=1847 |pages=20161902 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2016.1902 |pmid=28123087 |issn=0962-8452|pmc=5310030 }}