Morphology is among the most important traits influencing the interaction of individual animals with their environments. Fossoriality reflects this functional association between morphology and the use of subterranean habitats and their associated environmental characteristics. Lizards in the families Gymnophthalmidae and Alopoglossidae are model organisms to examine the interplay between morphology and fossoriality because great morphological diversity exists among species, including varying degrees of body elongation and limb reduction, and they have a wide geographical distribution in the Neotropical region. We analysed the morphology of 101 microteiid species and created an index to evaluate their degree of fossoriality. From this index, we traced the evolution of fossoriality in these lizards and assessed its primary environmental correlates. We found that fossoriality evolved independently in several lineages, mainly associated with high temperature and low precipitation, characteristic of more arid and sandy environments.

中文翻译：

---

微蜥蜴化石的进化


形态学是影响个体动物与其环境相互作用的最重要特征之一。化石反映了形态与地下栖息地的使用及其相关环境特征之间的功能关联。裸眼蜥科和蜥蜴科蜥蜴是研究形态和化石之间相互作用的模式生物，因为物种之间存在巨大的形态多样性，包括不同程度的身体伸长和四肢缩短，并且它们在新热带地区有广泛的地理分布。我们分析了 101 个微足类物种的形态，并创建了一个指数来评估它们的化石程度。根据这个指数，我们追踪了这些蜥蜴的化石进化，并评估了其主要的环境相关性。我们发现，化石在几个谱系中独立进化，主要与高温和低降水量有关，这是更干旱和沙质环境的特征。