Trachylepis

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Trachylepis
Goldmabuye (Trachylepis aurata), the only European Trachylepis species.

Goldmabuye ( Trachylepis aurata ), the only European Trachylepis species.

Systematics
Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
without rank: Scincomorpha (Scincoidea)
Family : Skinks (Scincidae)
Subfamily : Mabuyinae
Genre : Trachylepis
Scientific name
Trachylepis
Fitzinger , 1843

Trachylepis is a genus of lizards fromthe skink family (Scincidae). The 79 species are mainly found in Africa and Asia as well as on many islands in the Indian Ocean , one species also colonizes the Brazilian island group Fernando de Noronha .

features

Trachylepis species have movable eyelids, with the lower eyelid being transparent. The ear opening is open and the eardrum is more or less hidden. The nostril lies within a single scale. A supranasal (scale above the nostril) is present. Frontals and prefrontals are paired in most species. The interparietals are usually not fused with the parietals. The scales in front of the cloaca do not differ from one another in terms of shape and size.

distribution

The genus Trachylepis occurs in the whole of Africa (with the exception of the Sahara ), on Madagascar and the surrounding islands of the south-western Indian Ocean ( Comoros , Seychelles ), in Asia Minor , in the Middle East , in the eastern Transcaucasia ( Armenia , Azerbaijan ), in southern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan , in Pakistan , Nepal and northern India, as well as, each with one species, on the Fernando de Noronha archipelago off the northeast coast of Brazil ( Trachylepis atlantica ) and the Aegean islands of Samos and Rhodes ( Goldmabuye ).

Systematics

Trachylepis albilabris
Trachylepis capensis
Trachylepis homalocephala
Trachylepis maculilabris when mating.
Trachylepis perrotetii
Trachylepis polytropis
Trachylepis striata
Trachylepis vittata
Trachylepis wrightii

The generic name refers to the longitudinal keels on the dorsal scales of the lizards ("lepis" = scale + "trachy" = rough, uneven), which are otherwise smooth and scaly (skinks are also called smooth lizards).

Head of Trachylepis maculata . For the diagnosis of the genus, characteristics of the scaling of the head are used in particular.

Trachylepis was part of the genus Mabuya . In 2002, Mausfeld split this into the four genera Mabuya (South America), Euprepis (Africa and Madagascar), Chioninia ( Cape Verde ) and Eutropis (Asia) due to genetic and morphological differences .

However, since the genus name Euprepis is synonymous with Mabuya due to the first description and is therefore not available, Trachylepis is set as the valid name of the genus in 2003 .

The Reptile Database lists 79 species for the genus Trachylepis :

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Natalia B. Ananjeva, Nikolai L. Orlov, Roman G. Khalikov, Ilya S. Darevsky, Sergei A. Ryabov, Andrei Barabanov: The Reptiles of Northern Eurasia: taxonomic diversity, distribution, conservation status (Faunistica) Pensoft Publishers, November 2006, ISBN 9-546-42269-X
  2. ↑ Patrick Mausfeld, Andreas Schmitz, Wolfgang Böhme, Bernhard Misof, Davor Vrcibradic, Carlos Frederico Duarte Rocha: Phylogenetic Affinities of Mabuya atlantica Schmidt, 1945, Endemic to the Atlantic Ocean Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha (Brazil): Necessity of Partitioning the Genus Mabuya Fitzinger, 1826 (Scincidae: Lygosominae) . In: Zoologischer Anzeiger . 2002, p. 281-293 .
  3. ^ Aaron M. Bauer: On the identity of lacerta punctata Linnaeus 1758, the type species of the genus Euprepis Wagler 1830, and the generic assignment of Afro-Malagasy skinks . In: African Journal of Herpetology . tape 52 , 2003.
  4. ^ Trachylepis in The Reptile Database
  5. ↑ Luis MP Ceríaco: Lost in the middle of the sea, found in the back of the shelf: A new giant species of Trachylepis (Squamata: Scincidae) from Tinhosa Grande islet, Gulf of Guinea. Zootaxa, 3973, 3, pp. 511-527, 2015

Web links

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