AN EARLY CRETACEOUS LIZARD FROM THE SANFRANCISCANA BASIN, SOUTHEAST BRAZIL

Fossil tetrapods from the Sanfranciscana Basin are rare and mostly concentrated in some exceptional horizons of the Lower Cretaceous Quiricó Formation (Areado Group). The specimens described until now includes partial skeletons assigned to sauropod and theropod dinosaurs, with only one species formally described. The overlying Lower/Upper Cretaceous Três Barras Formation is also relevant, but it has yielded so far only footprints attributed to theropod and ornithischian dinosaurs. We communicate the discovery of the first lizard (i.e., terrestrial non-pythonomorph squamate) from the Sanfranciscana Basin, adding a new clade to the fossil record of the Quiricó Formation. The specimen has been collected from a mudstone level cropping out at northwest Minas Gerais State, which has been recently dated as Valanginian based on ostracods. The recovered bones include cranial (premaxilla, maxilla, partial lower jaw, most teeth in situ) and postcranial remains (dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae, pelvic girdle, and limb bones) of a small individual (the mandible is ca. 10 mm long). Comparisons with several lizard species worldwide indicate this is the first paramacellodid lizard from South America, also representing the oldest squamate from that continent. This also indicates that paramacellodids were the first clade of squamates with a worldwide distribution. This finding partially fills the gap in the evolutionary history of squamates in the southern landmasses during the Mesozoic. [FAPEMIG].