The desert plated lizard (Gerrhosaurus skoogi) is a reptile species endemic to the northern Namib Desert in Namibia and Angola.[2] Also known as the sand plated lizard,[3] it is diurnal.[4]
| Gerrhosaurus skoogi | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Scinciformata |
| Infraorder: | Scincomorpha |
| Family: | Gerrhosauridae |
| Genus: | Gerrhosaurus |
| Species: | G. skoogi
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| Binomial name | |
| Gerrhosaurus skoogi Andersson, 1916
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| Synonyms | |
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Etymology
editThe specific name, skoogi, is in honor of Hilmer Nils Erik Skoog (1870–1927), who was Curator of the Götesborgs Naturhistoriska museum from 1904 to 1927.[5]
Taxonomy
editIn 1916 Andersson described this lizard as a new species, naming it Gerrhosaurus skoogi. In 1953 FitzSimons assigned the species to a new genus Angolosaurus. Recent studies[3] suggest that this monotypic genus is synonymous to Gerrhosaurus and makes it paraphyletic; therefore A. skoogi was reclassified as Gerrhosaurus skoogi.
Ecology
editGerrhosaurus skoogi mostly eats plants, but it also forages for beetles and other small arthropods that live within the sand dunes that the lizard inhabits.[6] G. skoogi is considered to be a sand-diving lizard and can move efficiently through sand dunes.[6]
References
edit- ^ Conradie, W.; Bauer, A.M.; Becker, F. (2020). "Gerrhosaurus skoogi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T178229A120595016. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- ^ "Gerrhosaurus skoogi". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
- ^ a b [1] Lamb T, Meeker AM, Bauer AM, Branch WR (2003). "On the systematic status of the desert plated lizard (Angolosaurus skoogi ): phylogenetic inference from DNA sequence analysis of the African Gerrhosauridae". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 78 (2): 253-261.
- ^ Nagy KA, Clarke BC, Seely MK, Mitchell D, Lighton JRB (1991). "Water and Energy Balance in Namibian Desert Sand-Dune Lizards Angolosaurus skoogi ". Functional Ecology 5 (6): 731-739.
- ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Gerrhosaurus skoogi, p. 245).
- ^ a b Robinson, M.D.; Barrows, C.W. (2013). "Namibian and North American sand-diving lizards". Journal of Arid Environments. 93: 116–125.
Further reading
edit- Andersson LG (1916). "Notes on the reptiles and batrachians in the Zoological museum at Gothenburg with an account of some new species". Göteborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps och Vitter-Hets Samhalles Handlingar, Series B, 4, 17 (5): 1-41. (Gerrhosaurus skoogi, new species).
- Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second Impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. ISBN 0-88359-042-5. (Angolosaurus skoogi, p. 177 + Plate 64).
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