Tupinambis is a lizard genus which belongs to the family Teiidae and contains eight described species. These large lizards are commonly referred to as . They are primarily found in South America, although T. teguixin also occurs in Panama.
In 2012, a number of tegu species were reclassified from Tupinambis to the previously used genus Salvator. The newly proposed classification comes from a restructuring of the family Teiidae based upon the study of 137 morphological characteristics. The new classification is as follows: Salvator duseni (yellow tegu), Salvator rufescens (red tegu), Salvator merianae (Argentine black and white tegu), Tupinambis teguixin (gold tegu), Tupinambis longilineus (Rhondonia tegu), Tupinambis palustris (swamp tegu) and Tupinambis quadrilineatus (four-lined tegu).
Names
Tupinambis lizards are called
teiú in Portuguese. The lizards are also called
tishiriú in the extinct Tuxá language of
Bahia, Brazil,
[Pompeu Sobrinho, Thomaz. 1958. Línguas Tapuias desconhecidas do Nordeste: Alguns vocabulários inéditos. Boletim de Antropologia (Fortaleza-Ceará) 2. 3-19.] and
dzižuảsu in the extinct Potiguara language of
Pernambuco, Brazil.
As with many other animals from tropical South America (e.g. the Cariamae), Tupinambis owes its scientific name to the pioneering accounts given by Piso & Marcgrave in their Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648). However, a misinterpretation (by Carl Linnaeus) of the Latin text occurred, which reads "TEIVGVACV ... Tupinambis", 'to the Tupinambá Indigenous TEIVGVACU'. Tupinambis was merely a metalinguistic term meaning 'to/for the Tupinambá,' whereas the intended, indigenous name for the animal was teiú-guaçú lizard-big; lit. 'big lizard'.[Cf. 'Etnolingüística' discussion list; 2/22/2012; http://lista.etnolinguistica.org/3167]
Description
The
Tupinambis species have
Heterodonty dentition consisting of four different types of teeth.
Incisor-type—tricuspid—teeth reside at the tip of the mouth.
Recurved canine-type teeth occur further back on the tooth row.
Behind those reside a separate set of incisor-like teeth (though flattened in a perpendicular plane to the first set of incisors).
The rearmost teeth are blunt, rounded, peg-shaped teeth.
The rearmost two tooth classes only occur in sexually mature individuals, thus indicating an
Ontogeny shift in tooth morphology.
Along with changes in tooth type, the frequency of each tooth type also changes with ontogeny, without an overall change in tooth count (approximately 70 teeth).
Rather than increase tooth count, the teeth themselves increase in size as the jaw grows from hatchling to adult.
This ontogenetic shift in tooth morphology suggests a shift in diet with age; however, few dietary studies have been done to support this claim and limited stomach content observations do not show much variability between hatchlings and juveniles.
is an omnivore, consuming both fruit and as well as invertebrate and vertebrate prey.
Taxonomy
Species listed alphabetically by specific name.
[ Tupinambis, The Reptile Database]
| +
!Species
!Common name
!Image |
| Tupinambis cryptus
Murphy, Jowers, Lehtinen, Charles, Colli, Peres Jr., Hendry, & Pyron, 2016 | cryptic golden tegu | |
| Tupinambis cuzcoensis
Murphy, Jowers, Lehtinen, Charles, Colli, Peres Jr., Hendry, & Pyron, 2016 | Cusco tegu | |
| Tupinambis longilineus
Ávila-Pires, 1995 | Rondonia tegu | |
Tupinambis matipu
Silva, Ribeiro-Junior, & Ávila-Pires, 2018 | | |
| Tupinambis palustris
Manzani & Abe, 2002 | swamp tegu | |
| Tupinambis quadrilineatus
Manzani & Abe, 1997 | four-lined tegu | |
Tupinambis teguixin
(Carl Linnaeus, 1758) | gold tegu | |
| Tupinambis zuliensis
Murphy, Jowers, Lehtinen, Charles, Colli, Peres Jr., Hendry, & Pyron, 2016 | Maracaibo Basin tegu | |
Evolution
Mitochondrial DNA analysis indicates a deep divergence between a northern clade (containing
T. teguixin,
T. palustris and
T. quadrilineatus) and a southern clade (containing
T. duseni).
[Fitzgerald et al., 1999] The northern and southern clades are morphologically distinct, with the northern clade possessing a single pair of loreal scales between the eye and the nostril and a smooth texture to the scales on the body and the southern clade possessing two pairs of loreal scales and a bumpy texture to the scales on the body.
At least one review of the morphology of the family Teiidae has placed the tegus of the southern clade in the genus
Salvator. Subsequent studies support the paraphyletic status of
Tupinambis, though further research will be necessary to determine if the split will gain wider acceptance among the herpetological community.
Comparative analysis of
hemipenis anatomy also provides support for the split between
Tupinambis and
Salvator.
Tegus probably originated sometime during the Cenozoic era. Tupinambis fossils from Argentina date back to the Late Miocene,
Further reading
-
Boulenger GA. 1885. Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume II. ...Teiidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 497 pp. + Plates I-XXIV. (Genus Tupinambis, pp. 334–335).
-
Daudin FM. 1802. Histoire Naturelle, Génerale et Particulière des Reptiles; Ouvrage faisant suite à l'Histoire Naturelle générale et particulière, composée par Leclerc de Buffon, et rédigé par C.S. Sonnini, membre de plusieurs Sociétés savantes. Tome Troisième Volume. Paris: F. Dufart. 452 pp. ( Tupinambis, new genus, pp. 5–6). (in French).
