Timon (genus)
| Timon | ||||||||||||
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Pearl lizard ( timon lepidus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Timon | ||||||||||||
| Tschudi , 1836 |
Timon is a genus from the family of the real lizards , which occurs with three species on the Iberian Peninsula , in the south of France , in the extreme northwest of Italy , in Morocco , the Western Sahara and in the north of Algeria and Tunisia . Another species, the zagrose lizard ( Timon princeps ), lives in eastern Turkey , northeastern Syria , northern Iraq, and southwestern Iran .
features
Timon species, like the members of Lacerta , its sister genus , have strong and not flattened heads and bodies. However, they become even larger and reach a head-torso length of 10 to 21 cm or more. Males grow larger than females. There are normally nine teeth on the premaxillary , and the wing bone is also dentate. The hemipenis has small hook-shaped spines.
The basic color of the Timon species is green, gray or brown, the ventral side greenish to greenish yellow or whitish, without dark spots. Blue spots often appear on the shoulder region and on the flanks, sometimes several rows. The color of the throat can differ from the belly color and, depending on the species, be yellow, orange, red or light blue. Young animals do not have brightly colored tails.
Way of life
Timon species prefer biotopes with bushy vegetation and, like Lacerta, feed on larger prey. They are oviparous, so they lay eggs. During mating, the male bites into the flank of the female. A clutch consists of 5 to 22 eggs. The hatching young lizards have large heads and short limbs and thus show a child pattern .
species
- Kurdish Zagrose Lizard ( Timon kurdistanicus ( Suchow , 1936) )
- Pearl lizard ( Timon lepidus ( Daudin , 1802) )
- Sierra Nevada pearl lizard ( Timon nevadensis ( Buchholz , 1963) )
- Timon pater ( Lataste , 1880)
- Zagrose lizard ( Timon princeps ( Blanford , 1874) )
- Morocco pearl lizard ( Timon tangitanus ( Boulenger , 1889) )
literature
- E. Nicholas Arnold, Oscar Arribas, Salvador Carranza: Systematics of the Palaearctic and Oriental lizard tribe Lacertini (Squamata: Lacertidae: Lacertinae), with descriptions of eight new genera (= Zootaxa . 1430). Magnolia Press, Auckland 2007, digital version (PDF; 2.76 MB) .
