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Xenosauridae:

 

The Xenosauridae consist of the Central American genus Xenosaurus and of two fossil North American genera, Exostinus and Restes, which are very close to Xenosaurus.

 

The temporal arches are strongly developed, and the temporal openings are large and not roofed by skull bones. The bones of the skull are roughened by the fusion to them of the cranial osteoderms (Goin et al. 1978). Cranial features:

 

(1)         Cephalic scales relatively small,

(2) Cephalic osteodermal crust divided into conical mounds;

(3) Frontals constricted between orbits;

(4) Rectangular cross-section of skull owing to presence of canthal crest on temporal arch;

(5) Widened and sculptured postorbital branch of jugal;

(6) Jugal-squamosal contact on temporal arch;

(7) Ectopterygoid exposed laterally on skull;

(8) Carotid fossa reduced (after Borsuk-Bialynicka, 1986).