Van Dam's girdled lizard

Van Dam's girdled lizard (Smaug vandami) is a species of sungazers that are endemic[2] to Limpopo near Gravelotte, South Africa.

Van Dam's girdled lizard

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Cordylidae
Genus: Smaug
Species:
S. vandami
Binomial name
Smaug vandami
(FitzSimons, 1930)
Synonyms
  • Zonurus vandami FitzSimons, 1930
  • Cordylus warreni vandami
  • Cordylus vandami

This large lizard (SVL 145 mm)[3] has a triangular shaped head with spiny dorsal scales. They are largely solitary and hide in cracks in the rocks.

Other names

The species is named for the collector of the type specimens, Gerhardus Petrus Frederick van Dam[4][5] (d. 1927), a South African herpetologist.

Other common names include the Afrikaans name "ouvolk"[6] - meaning "old folk".

Description

The predominant colour is dark brown with fragmented yellow rings.[7]

gollark: ```print "Hacked with Python 2 or Lua"```
gollark: (produced by the common Unix tool `haxxdump`)
gollark: 011d3b0 ecda fe42 f33d d112 2b8c 7e1d 24d2 11e5011d3c0 2475 ae6a bb0f 0c59 592b 3e75 6074 5f61011d3d0 ff42 a907 c773 c81f 3095 97ba 7fe2 5270011d3e0 c021 d886 1dfc 01eb f22a 0174 38cb ab3e011d3f0 2476 6efa 2bb0 6dde cd92 0222 5467 7221011d400 bb13 2647 77f7 8c51 6206 e40d 3c85 117c011d410 86bb 928f 2234 bb31 298e dd89 7209 6a00011d420 49b1 182b 52fc 6659 f720 c14c 7064 213c011d430 be13 5b7f 36db 9228 232a be39 1c9e 4065011d440 3e92 3fa8 a538 8a60 c599 7c88 9f72 9748011d450 8a5d fc83 b21b e48d 666a 8670 3d61 0225
gollark: I have made many a useless side project.
gollark: I mean, there's a difference between programming and, say, sysadmin stuff, but yes.

References
  1. Mouton, P.L.F.N. (2017). "Smaug vandami". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T110167848A110313918. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T110167848A110313918.en.
  2. "Living National Treasures". Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  3. Branch, William R. (1996). Field Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Struik. pp. Plate 70. ISBN 9781868720408.
  4. "The Reptile Database". Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  5. "Van Dam, Mr Gerhardus Petrus Frederik (zoology, plant collection)". Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  6. Ed Stanley. "Smaug Stanley et al. 2011". Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  7. Bader, Kenneth. "Van Dam's Girdled Lizard". Website on girdled lizards kept in captivity
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.