Autarchoglossa is a previously recognized suborder of squamates that includes skinks, anguimorphs, snakes, and relatives.Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2008. Suborder Autarchoglossa . The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed March 28, 2011 at https://animaldiversity.org.
The recent proposal of the Toxicofera clade places Iguania within Autarchoglossa, which may lead to confusion as Autarchoglossa means "free-tongued", and iguanians do not have this feature. To circumvent this, it has been proposed that Autarchoglossa be renamed to Unidentata (single egg-tooth, a feature both groups share) and be redefined to include Iguania.Vidal, N. and Hedges, S.B. 2005. The phylogeny of squamate reptiles (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) inferred from nine nuclear protein-coding genes. C.R. Biologies 328:1000-1008. available online: https://mnhn.academia.edu/NicolasVidal/Papers/450567/The_phylogeny_of_squamate_reptiles_lizards_snakes_and_amphisbaenians_inferred_from_nine_nuclear_protein-coding_genes
The following are families classified under the old definition of Autarchoglossa (excluding Iguania):
Anguidae Gray, 1825 – alligator lizards, anguids, galliwasps, glass lizards Anniellidae Nopcsa 1928 – legless lizards Cordylidae Mertens, 1937 – girdle-tailed lizards Gerrhosauridae Fitzinger, 1843 - plated lizards Gymnophthalmidae Merrem, 1820 - spectacled lizards Helodermatidae Gray, 1837 – beaded lizards Lacertidae Gray, 1825 – wall lizards, Old World racerunners Lanthanotidae Steindachner, 1877 – earless monitors Scincidae Gray, 1825 – skinks Teiidae Gray, 1827 – tegus, junglerunners, ground lizards, New World racerunners, whiptails Varanidae Hardwicke & Gray, 1827 – monitors Xantusiidae Baird, 1858 – night lizards Xenosauridae Cope, 1866 - knob-scaled lizards
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