Heterodontagama

Heterodontagama Temporal range: Ypresian, 54 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Iguania
Family:	†Priscagamidae
Genus:	†Heterodontagama Rana et al., 2013
Type species
†Heterodontagama borsukae Rana et al., 2013

Heterodontagama is an extinct genus of iguanian lizard from the Early Eocene of India. It belongs to the extinct family Priscagamidae, which is otherwise only known from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. The type species Heterodontagama borsukae was named in 2013 from several isolated upper and lower jaws found in an exposure of the Cambay Shale in an open-pit coal mine in Gujarat.

Heterodontagama has a distinctively heterodont dentition. The two pairs of teeth at the front of the lower jaw are enlarged, pointed, and pleurodont, meaning that they grow from the inner surface of the jaw. The four following pairs of teeth are much smaller and acrodont, meaning that they grow from the upper margin of the jaw. Behind them are four pairs of larger, laterally compressed, and triangular acrodont teeth.[1]

References

1. Rana, R.S.; Augé, M.; Folie, A.; Rose, K.D.; Kumar, K.; Singh, L.; Sahni, A.; Smith, T. (2013). "High diversity of acrodontan lizards in the Early Eocene Vastan Lignite Mine of India". Geologica Belgica. 16 (4): 290–301.