© 2017 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2017, 181, 385–399 385 Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2017, 181, 385–399. With 5 figures. A new family of teiioid lizards from the Upper Cretaceous of Romania with notes on the evolutionary history of early teiioids VLAD A. CODREA 1 , MÁRTON VENCZEL 2 * and ALEXANDRU SOLOMON 1 1 Department of Geology and Palaeontology, Babeş-Bolyai University, 1 Kogălniceanu Str., 400084 Cluj- Napoca, Romania 2 Department of Natural History, Țării Crișurilor Museum, Dacia Ave. 1–3, 410464 Oradea, Romania Received 12 September 2016; revised 15 January 2017; accepted for publication 25 January 2017 Abundant isolated bones of fossil lizards from the uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) continental deposits of western Romania point to a previously unexpected squamate diversity in the so-called Hațeg Island. Using pre- viously reported and recently collected material, we define here a new family of teiioid lizards. In addition, new specimens recovered from the locality of Oarda de Jos (uppermost Cretaceous, Maastrichtian) in the southwestern Transylvanian Basin, Romania, representing isolated cranial bones of small- to medium-sized lizards, are described as Oardasaurus glyphis gen. et sp. nov. and assigned to this new family of lizards. Based on its distinctive holotype parietal, O. glyphis appears closely allied to the large-sized teiioid Barbatteius vremiri Venczel & Codrea, 2016, suggesting a rapid diversification of that clade following the insular colonization. Currently, this lizard group is documented from the Transylvanian Landmass only, being derived likely from a Gondwanan stock of teiioid liz- ards that reached cratonic Europe across the Mediterranean Sill in the Early Cretaceous. In the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), when reaching ‘Hațeg Island’, the group underwent an adaptive radiation but apparently did not survive the K/Pg extinction event. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: adaptive radiation – Europe – palaeobiogeography – Squamata – Teiioidea – Upper Cretaceous – Western Tethys. INTRODUCTION Upper Cretaceous vertebrate assemblages from the Transylvanian region of western Romania have attracted particular attention since their first discovery in 1895 (Weishampel & Kercher, 2013 and references therein) especially because of their island setting (‘Hațeg Island’) unveiling an unusual mix of taxa including dwarfed dinosaurs, gigantic pterosaurs, crocodilians and turtles (Nopcsa, 1914; Benton et al., 2010; Stein et al., 2010; Csiki-Sava et al., 2015). Reports on smaller verte- brates (fish, lissamphibians, squamates, birds and mul- tituberculate mammals) have appeared more recently (Grigorescu et al., 1985, 1999; Rădulescu & Samson, 1996, 1997; Codrea et al., 2002, 2010, 2014; Venczel & Csiki, 2003; Csiki, Grigorescu & Rücklin, 2005; Folie & Codrea, 2005; Dyke et al., 2012; Vasile, Csiki-Sava & Venczel, 2013; Venczel & Codrea, 2016; Csiki-Sava et al., 2015, 2016; Solomon et al., 2016) demonstrating a mark- edly higher diversity of taxa than previously expected. Among Squamata, the fossil record includes indetermi- nate anguimorph and scincomorph lizards (Grigorescu et al., 1999), paramacellodids (Becklesius nopcsai Folie & Codrea, 2005; B. cf. hoffstetteri), borioteiioids (Bicuspidon hatzegiensis Folie & Codrea, 2005), teiioids (Barbatteius vremiri Venczel & Codrea, 2016) and madtsoiid snakes (Nidophis insularis Vasile et al., 2013). We report here the fossil remains of a new teiioid liz- ard from the Maastrichtian of Oarda de Jos A (=ODA), southwestern Transylvania ( Fig. 1), that appears closely allied to Barbatteius vremiri, a large teiioid described recently from the Maastrichtian of Pui local- ity, Hațeg Basin, Romania (Venczel & Codrea, 2016). *Corresponding author. E-mail: mvenczel@gmail.com [Version of Record, published on 9 May 2017; http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A37252D4- 7B1F-42AC-9799-D7821B701916] Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/181/2/385/3807327 by guest on 20 October 2022