The Lower Cretaceous lizard genus Chometokadmon from Italy

The Lower Cretaceous (Albian) locality of Pietraroia, Italy, has yielded a rich and diverse assemblage of fossil vertebrates, including at least one genus of rhynchocephalian (Derasmosaurus) and three named lizards (Chometokadmon, Costasaurus and Eichstaettisaurus). The type and only specimen of Chometokadmon is well-preserved but has never been comprehensively described or assessed. It was mistakenly classified as a sphenodontian for many years, but detailed reanalysis has shown that Chometokadmon is a squamate. The genus has a relatively unspecialised postcranial skeleton, but the skull is distinctive in having an elongated parietal, expanded squamosal, recurved teeth, and cranial osteoderms. A combination of cranial and postcranial characters (including separable cranial osteoderms, an elongate supratemporal, tooth and pubic morphology) supports a relationship with Anguimorpha, a hypothesis corroborated by cladistic analysis.