Wautaugategu
Wautaugategu is an extinct teiid lizard from the Middle Miocene of the southeastern United States. It belongs to the subfamily Tupinambinae and has one known species, Wautaugategu formidus. Scientists described it in 2025 based on a single thoracic vertebra found in a Barstovian 2 paleocoastal deposit in southwestern Georgia.
The fossil was excavated in the early 2000s from a fuller's earth clay mine near the Georgia–Florida border and is now housed in the Florida Museum of Natural History collections. The vertebra is interpreted as coming from a tupinambine teiid, anatomically similar to modern tegus.
The genus name combines a reference to Wautauga State Forest near the discovery site with "tegu," the common name of related lizards. The species name formidus means "warm," alluding to the warm climate the animal lived in and the body temperature of its living relatives.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:42 (CET).