Well folks, it appears once again someone has felt it necessary (and rightly so) to revamp Teiidae systematics. If fully accepted, it means what we call tegus are now divided into two genuses, much along the lines of the previous 'clades' that I've sometimes talked about. This revision is purely based on morphology, and although they do a generally indepth analysis, it is clear the authors are not as familiar with the material as I'd like them to be (ie. for one, they continue to stress the importance of one vs. two loreal scales between the two groups, and as anyone with enough experience will point out, there are rather common exceptions to this).
So, according to this new scheme, they've re-enlisted the old genus of Salvator first proposed by Dumeril and Bibron in 1839. With this new scheme we now have:
Salvator duseni Yellow or Duseni's tegu
Salvator rufescens Argentine Red Tegu
Salvator merianae So many names......
Tupinambis teguixin Colombian Black&White/Gold tegu
Tupinambis longilineus Rhondonia tegu
Tupinambis palustris Swamp tegu (I was rather pleased my old friends' designation stood, there was contention by some that this wasn't a distinct species)
Tupinambis quadrilineatus Four-lined tegu
While I think this is a great development, I still have some reservations, and I'd REALLY like someone to do a more modern up-to-date genetic analysis.
Bookmarks