Editing Lizard (section)

===Taxonomy===
{{Main|List of Lacertilia families}}
[[Image:Prognathodon3.jpg|thumb|Artistic restoration of a mosasaur, ''[[Prognathodon]]'']]
In the 13th century, lizards were recognized in Europe as part of a broad category of ''reptiles'' that consisted of a miscellany of egg-laying creatures, including "snakes, various fantastic monsters, […], assorted amphibians, and worms", as recorded by [[Vincent of Beauvais]] in his ''Mirror of Nature''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Franklin-Brown | first = Mary | title = Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age | publisher = The University of Chicago Press | location = Chicago London | year = 2012 | isbn = 9780226260709|page=223;377}}</ref> The seventeenth century saw changes in this loose description. The name [[Sauria]] was coined by [[James Macartney (anatomist)|James Macartney]] (1802);<ref>James Macartney: Table III ''in'': George Cuvier (1802) "Lectures on Comparative Anatomy" (translated by William Ross under the inspection of James Macartney). Vol I. London, Oriental Press, Wilson and Co.</ref> it was the Latinisation of the French name ''Sauriens'', coined by [[Alexandre Brongniart]] (1800) for an order of reptiles in the classification proposed by the author, containing lizards and [[crocodilia]]ns,<ref>Alexandre Brongniart (1800) "Essai d'une classification naturelle des reptiles. 1ère partie: Etablissement des ordres." Bulletin de la Science. Société Philomathique de Paris 2 (35): 81–82</ref> later discovered not to be each other's closest relatives. Later authors used the term "Sauria" in a more restricted sense, i.e. as a synonym of Lacertilia, a suborder of [[Squamata]] that includes all lizards but excludes [[snake]]s. This classification is rarely used today because Sauria so-defined is a [[paraphyletic]] group. It was defined as a [[clade]] by [[Jacques Gauthier]], Arnold G. Kluge and Timothy Rowe (1988) as the group containing the most recent common ancestor of [[archosaur]]s and [[Lepidosauria|lepidosaurs]] (the groups containing crocodiles and lizards, as per Mcartney's original definition) and all its descendants.<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Gauthier | first=J. A. | author-link=Jacques Gauthier |author2=Kluge, A. G. |author3=Rowe, T. | title=Amniote phylogeny and the importance of fossils | journal=[[Cladistics (journal)|Cladistics]] | volume=4 | issue=2 | pages=105–209 | date=June 1988 |  doi=10.1111/j.1096-0031.1988.tb00514.x| pmid=34949076 | hdl=2027.42/73857 | s2cid=83502693 | url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73857/1/j.1096-0031.1988.tb00514.x.pdf | hdl-access=free }}</ref> A different definition was formulated by Michael deBraga and Olivier Rieppel (1997), who defined Sauria as the clade containing the most recent common ancestor of [[Choristodera]], [[Archosauromorpha]], [[Lepidosauromorpha]] and all their descendants.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Debraga, M. |author2=Rieppel, O. |name-list-style=amp | year=1997 | title=Reptile phylogeny and the interrelationships of turtles | journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume=120 | issue=3 | pages=281–354 | doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1997.tb01280.x | doi-access=free }}</ref> However, these uses have not gained wide acceptance among specialists.

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Suborder Lacertilia (Sauria) – (lizards) 
* Family †[[Bavarisauridae]]
* Family †[[Eichstaettisauridae]]
* Infraorder [[Iguanomorpha]]
** Family †[[Arretosauridae]]
** Family †[[Euposauridae]]
** Family [[Corytophanidae]] (casquehead lizards)
** Family [[Iguanidae]] ([[iguana]]s and [[spinytail iguanas]])
** Family [[Phrynosomatidae]] ([[Earless lizard|earless]], [[spiny lizard|spiny]], [[Urosaurus|tree]], [[side-blotched lizard|side-blotched]] and [[horned lizard|horned]] lizards)
** Family [[Polychrotidae]] ([[anole]]s)
*** Family [[Leiosauridae]] (see Polychrotinae)
** Family [[Tropiduridae]] (neotropical ground lizards)
*** Family [[Liolaemidae]] (see Tropidurinae)
*** Family [[Leiocephalidae]] (see Tropidurinae)
** Family [[Crotaphytidae]] ([[crotaphytus|collared]] and [[gambelia|leopard]] lizards)
** Family [[Opluridae]] (Madagascar iguanids)
** Family [[Hoplocercidae]] (wood lizards, clubtails)
** Family †[[Priscagamidae]]
** Family †[[Isodontosauridae]]
** Family [[Agamidae]] ([[Agama (lizard)|agamas]], [[Chlamydosaurus|frilled lizard]]s)
** Family [[Chamaeleonidae]] ([[chameleon]]s)
* Infraorder [[Gekkota]]
** Family [[Gekkonidae]] ([[gecko]]s)
** Family [[Pygopodidae]] (legless geckos)
** Family [[Dibamidae]] (blind lizards)

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* Infraorder [[Scincomorpha]]
** Family †[[Paramacellodidae]]
** Family †[[Slavoiidae]]
** Family [[Scincidae]] (skinks)
** Family [[Cordylidae]] (spinytail lizards)
** Family [[Gerrhosauridae]] (plated lizards)
** Family [[Xantusiidae]] (night lizards)
** Family [[Lacertidae]] (wall lizards or true lizards)
** Family †[[Mongolochamopidae]]
** Family †[[Adamisauridae]]
** Family [[Teiidae]] ([[tegu]]s and whiptails)
** Family [[Gymnophthalmidae]] (spectacled lizards)
* Infraorder [[Diploglossa]]
** Family [[Anguidae]] (slowworms, glass lizards)
** Family [[Anniellidae]] (American legless lizards)
** Family [[Xenosauridae]] (knob-scaled lizards)
* Infraorder [[Platynota]] ([[Varanoidea]])
** Family [[Varanidae]] (monitor lizards)
** Family [[Lanthanotidae]] (earless monitor lizards)
** Family [[Helodermatidae]] ([[Gila monster]]s and [[Mexican beaded lizard|beaded lizards]])
** Family †[[Mosasaur]]idae (marine lizards)
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[[File:Anguidae.jpg|thumb|The slowworms, ''[[Anguis]]'', are among over twenty groups of lizards that have [[convergent evolution|convergently evolved]] a legless [[body plan]].<ref name=Brandley/>]]