Lizards

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Lizards is the biologically ambiguous name for a taxon belonging to the reptiles or sauropsids . The most common definitions place the lizards either as a subordination to the scalloped reptiles or assign them to all reptile groups living today (traditionally excluding turtles ). The first group is assigned the scientific name Lacertilia , the second group the name Sauria (from ancient Greek σαῦρος sauros " lizard , salamander "). Confusingly, the name “Sauria” is also used synonymously with Lacertilia, so that one can only recognize which taxon is meant by looking at the context or by specifying the relevant author.

etymology

The name "Lizards" was created in 1816 by Lorenz Oken from the etymologically probably incorrect (*) abbreviation of " Lizards ". In the third part of his textbook of natural history , it serves as an alternative name for his order "Vogellurche", which includes both crocodiles and numerous species that are grouped under the name "Lacertilia" (see lizards in the narrower sense ) in the classical system that is still used today become.

(*)Incorrect because lizards not Eid and -echsen composed, but from egg ( proto-Germanic * AgI, * AWI "snake-like") and -dechsen ( proto-Germanic * þahsjō (s) "spindle-shaped"), see.  and .

Lizards in the strict sense

Lizards

Obsolete systematic group

The taxon dealt with here is not part of the systematics presented in the German-language Wikipedia. More information can be found in the article text.

Representatives of the four main groups of "lizards": Top left: Frontal lobe basilisk (Basiliscus plumifrons: Iguania) Top right: Sand runner (Psammodromus sp .: Scincomorpha) Bottom left: Gouldian monitor lizard (Varanus gouldii: Anguimorpha) Bottom right: Wall gecko (Tarentola mauritanica : Gekkota)

Representatives of the four major groups of "lizards":
Top left: plumed basilisk ( Basiliscus plumifrons : Iguania)
Top right: Sand Stalker ( Psammodromus sp .: Scincomorpha)
Bottom left: Gould'scher monitor lizard ( Varanus gouldii : Anguimorpha)
Bottom right: Mauergecko ( Tarentola mauritanica : Gekkota)

Systematics
Row : Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
Class : Reptiles (reptilia)
Subclass : Diapsida
Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
Paraphyletic taxon :
Subordination : Lizards
Scientific name
Lacertilia
Owen , 1842

concept

Lizards (Lacertilia; also Sauria MacCartney 1802) are in the classical zoological system, a subordination of the squamata (Squamata). The other traditional subordination of scale reptiles is that of snakes (Serpentes). In contrast to these, most lizards have fully developed limbs. The sneak is an exception . The lizards differ from the snakes in a number of other features. Snakes have z. B. only a single row of very wide ventral (ventrally located) scales, while the lizards have several rows of narrower scales.

The lacertilia are traditionally divided into four sub-orders:

  • Iguana-like (Iguania): iguanas, agamas, chameleons etc.
  • Gecko-like (Gekkota): geckos and relatives
  • Skinky (Scincomorpha): Skinks, lizards, girdles, etc.
  • Creeping i. w. S. (Anguimorpha): sneaks, monitor lizards, lizards etc.

From the point of view of cladistics , the lizards in the sense of the classical system are a paraphyletic group: The comparison of snakes and lizards is not tenable, since snakes are obviously more closely related to a certain group of lizards, namely monitor lizards, than the monitor lizards with other groups of lizards. From this it follows in turn that snakes probably emerged from monitor-like lizards and are therefore actually "lizards" themselves. Lizards are thus better than a degree of organization (ger .: grade to understand) in the evolution of Squamata.

Traditional system of the subordination Lacertilia

Lizards in the broader sense

Two reptile species with a typical “lizard habit” that are somewhat distantly related to the Lacertilians.  Left: Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus).  Right: † Belebey vegrandis (living reconstruction), a representative of the parareptiles from the Permian of Russia. Two reptile species with a typical “lizard habit” that are somewhat distantly related to the Lacertilians.  Left: Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus).  Right: † Belebey vegrandis (living reconstruction), a representative of the parareptiles from the Permian of Russia.
Two reptile species with a typical “lizard habit” that are somewhat distantly related to the Lacertilians. Left: Nile crocodile ( Crocodylus niloticus ). Right: †  Belebey vegrandis (living reconstruction), a representative of the parareptiles from the Permian of Russia.

If one also includes bridge lizards and crocodiles ("armored lizards") in the term, using it in the original, Okenian sense, "lizard" only refers to a reptile walking on all four legs with a rather long tail and a rather short neck, stands for the typical "lizard habit". This habitus is very old in evolutionary terms. Even the earliest reptiles such as B. Hylonomus from the Carboniferous owned it, which in turn was inherited from their amphibious ancestors.

In this respect it is not surprising that in a general language and popular science context all rather large amphibians and reptiles that have become extinct in the course of earth's history are referred to as “ dinosaurs ”.

The large taxon "Sauria", which was established in 1988 by the American vertebrate paleontologist and cladist Jacques Gauthier , does not include all reptiles with a lizard habit or even all externally similar terrestrial vertebrates, but the diapsid crown group , i.e. all diapsid species and species living today their fossil relatives. This does not include some “primitive”, albeit lizard-like “real” reptiles, such as the bolosaurs , the procolophonids or the “ protorothyridids ”, and even the first diapsids (e.g. Petrolacosaurus ), but the birds as recent dinosaurs.

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Fritz Clemens Werner: Word elements of Latin-Greek technical terms in the biological sciences (=  Suhrkamp Taschenbuch . Volume 64 ). 1st edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1972, p. 364 .
  2. a b Echse in the Digital Dictionary of the German Language (DWDS)
  3. ^ Albrecht Greule: Short words in a historical view . In: Jochen A. Bär, Thorsten Roelcke, Anja Steinhauer (eds.): Linguistic brevity. Conceptual, structural and pragmatic aspects . De Gruyter, 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-017542-4 , pp. 128 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. Lorenz Oken: Okens textbook of natural history. Third part: zoology. Second division: meat animals . August Schmidt and Comp., 1816, p. 290 ( BSB Digital ).
  5. Lizard in the Digital Dictionary of the German Language (DWDS)
  6. ↑ In Oken, the sneaks are not classified with the lizards, but together with the arm newts with the snakes, which shows how strongly the system was based on the external body shape at that time.
  7. ^ Jacques A. Gauthier, Arnold G. Kluge, Timothy Rowe: The early evolution of the Amniota. Pp. 103–155 in: Michael J. Benton (Ed.): The phylogeny and classification of the tetrapods, Volume 1: amphibians, reptiles, birds. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1988.

Web links

Wiktionary: Echse  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations