Lacertidae

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Lacertids
Temporal range: Ypresian–Recent
Sand lizard (Lacerta agilis)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Superfamily: Lacertoidea
Family: Lacertidae
Oppel, 1811
Type species
Lacerta agilis
Subgroups

See text

Troodos lizard
Phoenicolacerta troodica
Terminology and scalation of lacertids

The Lacertidae are the family of the wall lizards, true lizards, or sometimes simply lacertas, which are native to Afro-Eurasia. It is a diverse family with at about 360 species in 39 genera. They represent the dominant group of reptiles found in Europe.

Habitat

The European and Mediterranean species of lacertids live mainly in

arboreal lacertids, and its two species, Holaspis guentheri and Holaspis laevis, are gliders (although apparently poor ones), using their broad tail and flattened body as an aerofoil.[2]

Description

Lacertids are small or medium-sized lizards. Most species are less than 9 cm long, excluding the tail, although the largest living species,

Namib Desert
.

Lacertids are remarkably similar in form, with slender bodies and long tails, but have highly varied patterns and colours, even within the same species. Their scales are large on the head, which often also has osteoderms, small and granular on the back, and rectangular on the underside. Most species are sexually dimorphic, with the males and females having different patterns.[1]

At least eight species from the

parthenogenetic,[3][4] and three species give birth to live young, including the viviparous lizard, Zootoca vivipara.[1]

Evolutionary history

Lacertids are suspected to have originated in Europe, due to their earliest fossils being found in the region, alongside those of their sister group, the extinct Eolacertidae.[5] Fossils possibly attributable to lacertids are known from the Paleocene of France and Belgium, though the oldest definitive lacertid is known from the early Eocene (Ypresian) of Mutigny, France in the Paris Basin.[6] Lacertids dispersed into Asia by the early Oligocene.[7] The timing of the colonisation of Africa is uncertain, ranging from the Eocene to the Miocene.[8]

Classification

The classification into subfamilies and tribes below follows one presented by Arnold et al., 2007, based on their

phylogenetic analysis.[9]

Family Lacertidae

The latest extensive phylogenetic lacertid tree was made by Baeckens et al. in 2015.[10]

Extinct genera

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-12-178560-4
    .
  2. OCLC 47145828
    .
  3. ^ Darevskii IS. 1967. Rock lizards of the Caucasus: systematics, ecology and phylogenesis of the polymorphic groups of Caucasian rock lizards of the subgenus Archaeolacerta. Nauka: Leningrad [in Russian: English translation published by the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre, New Delhi, 1978].
  4. ^ Tarkhnishvili DN (2012) Evolutionary History, Habitats, Diversification, and Speciation in Caucasian Rock Lizards. In: Advances in Zoology Research, Volume 2 (ed. Jenkins OP), Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge (NY), p.79-120
  5. S2CID 49546941
    .
  6. ^
    S2CID 221749442
    .
  7. ISSN 1280-9659
    .
  8. PMID 27395778
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-86977-097-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2017. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help
    )
  10. hdl:10067/1205040151162165141
    .

External links

Wikispecies has information related to Lacertidae.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lacertidae.
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