Lizards
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.
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 major groups of "lizards": |
||||||||||||||
Systematics | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
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
- Partial order iguanas (Iguania)
- Family Agamidae (Agamen)
- Family Chamaeleonidae (chameleons)
- Iguanidae family (iguanas)
- Family Corytophanidae (basilisks and relatives)
- Family Crotaphytidae ( Collared Iguanas )
- Family Hoplocercidae
- Family Leiocephalidae (masked iguanas)
- Family Leiosauridae
- Family Liolaemidae
- Family Opluridae (Bald iguanas)
- Family Phrynosomatidae (Spiny Guane)
- Family Polychrotidae (Anoles)
- Family Tropiduridae (earth iguanas, keeltail iguanas)
- Partial order gecko-like (Gekkota)
- Gekkonidae family (geckos)
- Family Pygopodidae (pinnipeds)
- Family Dibamidae (snake snakes)
- Partial order Skinky (Scincomorpha)
- Family Scincidae (Skinke)
- Lacertidae family (real lizards)
- Family Teiidae (rail lizards)
- Family Cordylidae (Belt Lizard)
- Family Gerrhosauridae (shield lizards)
- Family Gymnophthalmidae
- Family Xantusiidae ( Nautilus )
- Partial order creeping i. w. S. (Anguimorpha)
- Superfamily Schleichchte i. e. S. (Diploglossa)
- Family Anguidae (Sneak)
- Family Anniellidae (ring snakes)
- Family Xenosauridae (mute iguanas)
- Superfamily monitor lizards (Platynota = Varanomorpha = Varanoidea)
- Varanidae family (monitor lizards)
- Family Lanthanotidae (Taubwarane)
- Family Helodermatidae (crusty lizards)
- Superfamily Schleichchte i. e. S. (Diploglossa)
Lizards in the broader sense
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
- ^ 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 .
- ↑ a b Echse in the Digital Dictionary of the German Language (DWDS)
- ^ 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).
- ↑ Lorenz Oken: Okens textbook of natural history. Third part: zoology. Second division: meat animals . August Schmidt and Comp., 1816, p. 290 ( BSB Digital ).
- ↑ Lizard in the Digital Dictionary of the German Language (DWDS)
- ↑ 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.
- ^ 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.