Liolaemidae
| Liolaemidae | ||||||||||||
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Liolaemus fabiani in the Salar de Atacama in northern Chile |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Liolaemidae | ||||||||||||
| Frost & Etheridge , 1989 |
The Liolaemidae are a family of the iguanas (Iguania). They occur in South America from the Andes of Peru and Bolivia via Chile to Tierra del Fuego . There are three genera Ctenoblepharys , which is monotypical , Liolaemus with 245 species and Phymaturus with 42 species described.
Of the Liolaemus species, 60 live in Chile alone, Liolaemus magellanicus occurs on Tierra del Fuego , making it the most southern lizard in the world. Liolaemus species occur in every habitat in southern South America and dominate the lizard fauna in many places. Some species also colonize very high altitudes. Liolaemus lutzae lives in a 200 km long and 50 to 100 meter wide strip directly on the sea coast near Rio de Janeiro and is endangered. The species that live in mountainous regions at high altitudes reproduce viviparously , the rest lay eggs.
The Phymaturus species are robustly built lizards that are similar in appearance to the North American Chuckwallas . They have flattened bodies, are territorial , herbivorous, and viviparous. The genus can be divided into two clades , one that mainly contains species living in the northern range of the genus that live in higher regions (up to 4800 meters) and a clade of Patagonian species that only occur below 2000 meters.
The family was previously counted as a subfamily to the Tropiduridae and raised to the rank of family in 2001.
literature
- Eric R. Pianka, Laurie J. Vitt: Lizards. Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (= Organisms and Environments. Vol. 5). University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2003, ISBN 0-520-23401-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ctenoblepharys in Reptile Database ; Retrieved January 22, 2011.
- ↑ Liolaemus in The Reptile Database ; Retrieved January 22, 2011.
- ↑ Phymaturus in The Reptile Database ; Retrieved January 22, 2011.
- ↑ Darrel R. Frost, Richard Etheridge, Daniel Janies, Tom A. Titus: Total evidence, sequence alignment, evolution of polychrotid lizards, and a reclassification of the Iguania (Squamata, Iguania) (= American Museum Novitates. No. 3343, ISSN 0003-0082 ). American Museum of Natural History, New York NY 2001, online .
