Agamas

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Agamas
Agama mwanzae Loveridge 1923

Agama mwanzae Loveridge 1923

Systematics
without rank: Sauropsida
Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
without rank: Toxicofera
without rank: Iguana (Iguania)
Family : Agamas
Scientific name
Agamidae
Gray , 1827

The agamas (Agamidae Gray, 1827) form a family within the scale reptiles . They inhabit a large part of the Old World as well as Australia and here a wide variety of habitats. This shows the great adaptability of the agamas. Except in very cool areas and in the water, they can be found pretty much anywhere in the designated area. They inhabit steppe landscapes as well as forests and desert areas.

Anatomy, way of life, behavior

Agamas have adapted to a wide variety of habitats. The type and shape of the scales play a role as well as the length of the tail - kites ( Draco ) need it to steer when gliding from one tree to the next - and the formation of the feet with wide skin seams that allow walking over water. All agamas can see extremely well. The eye is the most important and best developed sense organ of these lizards. Hearing is also very important . The sense of smell is not so strongly developed, but the agamas have olfactory cells in the nasal passage and also the Jacobson organ . With this organ , the animals can also perceive smells.

Almost all agamas (not thorntail agamas and sailing lizards ) feed mainly on animal food and, to a lesser extent, on vegetable food. The diet consists mainly of insects of all kinds up to small mammals. Some species such as the thorn devil ( Moloch horridus ) feed exclusively on ants and termites . Drinking water is either absorbed directly or through the skin from the humidity (species-specific), depending on the habitat.

The agamas are mostly diurnal. The warmth of the sun gives them the body heat they need, as they are unable to store their own heat.

Systematics

Agamas belong to the iguana-like family and together with the chameleons they form the unrestricted taxon Acrodonta.

For a long time, the inner system of the agamas was in the dark. Only the primitive butterfly and thorn- tailed agamas were placed in the subfamily Uromasticinae, all other agam genera belonged to the agaminae.

In phylogenetic studies in recent years have been found three major clades that have a different distribution. The Amphibolurinae include the genera of Australia and New Guinea , the Draconinae come from South Asia, and the Agaminae include most of the agamas from Africa, West and Central Asia and the European Hardun . Butterfly dragons, thorn-tailed dragons, and the sailing lizards systematically remain isolated in their own subfamilies.

Egyptian thorntail ( Uromastyx aegyptia )
Philippine sailing lizard ( Hydrosaurus pustulatus )
Frilled lizard ( Chlamydosaurus kingii )
Thorn devil ( Moloch horridus )
Beautiful lizard ( Calotes versicolor )
Hardun ( Stellagama stellio )
Bearded toad head ( Phrynocephalus mystaceus )

The family relationships are shown in the following cladogram :

  Iguanas  

 Pleurodonta  ( iguanas and relatives)


  Acrodonta  

 Chameleons  (Chamaeleonidae)


  Agamas  

 Thorntail agamen  (Uromastycinae)


   

 Butterfly agamas  ( Leiolepis )


   

 Amphibolurinae


   

 Sailing lizards  ( Hydrosaurus )


   

 Draconinae


   

 Agaminae









Template: Klade / Maintenance / Style

Subfamilies and genera of the agamas:

literature

  • Oliver Drewes: Compact Knowledge Agamas. VIVARIA Verlag, Meckenheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-9810412-5-5 .
  • Manfred Rogner: Lizards. Volume 1: geckos, pinnipeds, agamas, chameleons and iguanas. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8001-7248-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Agamid Lizards - Agamidae - Classifications - Encyclopedia of Life. Accessed March 7, 2018 (English).
  2. ↑ Masanao Honda, Hidetoshi Ota, Mari Kobayashi, Jarujin Nabhitabhata, Hoi-Sen Yong, Showichi Sengoku, Tsutomu Hikida: Phylogenetic Relationships of the Family Agamidae (Reptilia: Iguania) Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. In: Zoological Science. Vol. 17, No. 4, 2000, pp. 527-537, doi : 10.2108 / 0289-0003 (2000) 17 [527: PROTFA] 2.0.CO; 2 .
  3. ^ J. Robert Macey, James A. Schulte II, Allan Larson: Evolution and Phylogenetic Information Content of Mitochondrial Genomic Structural Features Illustrated with Acrodont Lizards. In: Systematic Biology. Vol. 49, No. 2, 2000, pp. 257-277, doi: 10.1093 / sysbio / 49.2.257 .
  4. ↑ James A. Schulte II, Jane Melville, Allan Larson: Molecular phylogenetic evidence for ancient divergence of lizard taxa on either side of Wallace's Line. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. Vol. 270, No. 1515, 2003, pp. 597-603, doi: 10.1098 / rspb.2002.2272 , PMC 1691285 (free full text).
  5. ^ The NCBI taxonomy database Agamidae
  6. ↑ a b c d Kai Wang, Jing Che, Simin Lin, V. Deepak, Datta-Roy Aniruddha, Ke Jiang, Jieqiong Jin, Hongman Chen and Cameron D. Siler. 2018. Multilocus Phylogeny and Revised Classification for Mountain Dragons of the Genus Japalura sl (Reptilia: Agamidae: Draconinae) from Asia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. zly034. DOI: 10.1093 / zoolinnean / zly034
  7. ↑ a b Saunak Pal, SP Vijayakumar, Kartik Shanker, Aditi Jayarajan and V. Deepak. 2018. A Systematic Revision of Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Western Ghats adds Two Genera and Reveals Two New Species. Zootaxa . 4482 (3); 401-450. DOI: 10.11646 / zootaxa.4482.3.1
  8. ↑ Harvey, Michael B., Larson, Thorton R., Jacobs, Justin L., Shaney, Kyle, Streicher, Jeffrey W., Hamidy, Amir, Kurniawan, Nia & Smit, Eric N. 2019. Phoxophrys After 60 Years: Review of Morphology, Phylogeny, Status of Pelturagonia , and a New Species from Southeastern Kalimantan. Herpetological Monographs 33 (1): 71-107. doi: 10.1655 / HERPMONOGRAPHS-D-19-00006.1

Web links

Commons : Agamen  - collection of images, videos and audio files