Desert plated lizard

The desert plated lizard (Gerrhosaurus skoogi) is a reptile species endemic to the northern Namib Desert in Namibia and Angola. Also known as the sand plated lizard,[2] it is diurnal.[3]

Gerrhosaurus skoogi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Gerrhosauridae
Genus: Gerrhosaurus
Species:
G. skoogi
Binomial name
Gerrhosaurus skoogi
Andersson, 1916
Synonyms[1]
  • Gerrhosaurus skoogi
    Andersson, 1916
  • Gerrhosaurus validus skoogi
    Loveridge, 1942
  • Angolosaurus skoogi
    V. FitzSimons, 1953
  • Gerrhosaurus skoogi
    Lamb et al., 2003

Etymology

The specific name, skoogi, is in honor of Hilmer Nils Erik Skoog (1870–1927), who was Curator of the Götesborgs Naturhistoriska museum from 1904 to 1927.[4]

Taxonomy

In 1916 Andersson described this lizard as a new species, naming it Gerrhosaurus skoogi. In 1953 FitzSimons assigned the species to a new genus Angolosaurus. Recent studies[2] suggest that this monotypic genus is synonymous to Gerrhosaurus and makes it paraphyletic; therefore A. skoogi was reclassified as Gerrhosaurus skoogi.

References

  1. "Gerrhosaurus skoogi ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. Lamb T, Meeker AM, Bauer AM, Branch WR (2003). "On the systematic status of the desert plated lizard (Angolosaurus skoogi ): phylogenetic inference from DNA sequence analysis of the African Gerrhosauridae". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 78 (2): 253-261.
  3. Nagy KA, Clarke BC, Seely MK, Mitchell D, Lighton JRB (1991). "Water and Energy Balance in Namibian Desert Sand-Dune Lizards Angolosaurus skoogi ". Functional Ecology 5 (6): 731-739.
  4. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Gerrhosaurus skoogi, p. 245).

Further reading

  • Andersson LG (1916). "Notes on the reptiles and batrachians in the Zoological museum at Gothenburg with an account of some new species". Göteborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps och Vitter-Hets Samhalles Handlingar, Series B, 4, 17 (5): 1-41. (Gerrhosaurus skoogi, new species).
  • Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second Impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. ISBN 0-88359-042-5. (Angolosaurus skoogi, p. 177 + Plate 64).


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