BREVIORA Museum of Connparsitive Zoology Cambridge, Mass. 15 September, 1969 Number 325 THE GENUS PHENACOSAURUS (SAURIA: IGUANIDAE) James D. Lazell, Jr. 1 The members of this order are the animals ihe Lord of the Hebrews did not create to grace his Eden; they are not among the products of the six days' labor. These are the sports, the offthrows, of the universe. . . . These are the weird children of the lust of the spheres. Charles Finney Abstract: A complete revision of the Andean genus Phenacosaurus, us-ing all available museum specimens, is presented. The genus is separated from Anolis on the bases of pelvic osteology and digital pad structure. Of four previously described species, two are retained: heterodermus (including "richteri" and "paramoensis") and nicefori. A new species, P. orcesi, is described from Ecuador. Among the strange and varied productions of the high Andes is a small assemblage of grotesque, big-headed, short-legged, pre-hensile-tailed lizards: the genus Phenacosaurus. Since Dunn's (1944) work on this genus in Colombia, it has not been re-exam-ined as a whole. Through the efforts of E. E. Williams, Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), it has now been possible to amass at one time and place the majority of specimens of all the species of this genus and thus attempt a complete review. Without the cooperation of the curators of many institutions, of course, this would not have been possible. I express here my gratitude to the curators of the following institutions : Instituto de La Salle, Bogota (ILS), British Museum (Natural History) (BMNH), Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ), Stanford University Museum of Natural History (SU), Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), Phila-delphia Academy of Natural Sciences (PANS), Fundacion La Salle 1 Massachusetts Audubon Society, Lincoln, Mass., 01773
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