A short-limbed lizard from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain

The Early Cretaceous (Barremian) locality of Las Hoyas (Cuenca Province, Ca stilla-La Mancha), Spain, has yielded a relatively diverse lizard assemblag e dominated by the scincomorph genus Meyasaurus, but including at least two further taxa: one with long limbs and the other with relatively short limb s. The short-limbed lizard is described here. It resembles Meyasaurus in ha ving a waisted frontal, but differs in many other features including the ab sence of sculpture on the skull bones, the presence of simple conical rathe r than bicuspid teeth, and the relative proportions of the limbs to the pre sacral body length. Comparison with other Jurassic and Early Cretaceous liz ards supports the erection of a new taxon, here named Hoyalacerta sanzi gen . et sp. nov. Parsimony analysis suggests that Hoyalacerta is a primitive s tem-group lizard, lying outside crown-group Squamata (Iguania + Sclerogloss a).