 In 1839, this species of tegu was originally described as "Salvator merianae".However, beginning in 1845 and continuing for 154 years, it was confused with "Tupinambis teguixin", and was considered a synonym of that species.In 1995, it was again given species status as "Tupinambis merianae" because subsequent studies had shown that the gold tegu, "Tupinambis teguixin", is distinct from it.