Desert plated lizard
{{Short description|Species of reptile}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Gerrhosaurus skoogi
| image = Desert Plated Lizard imported from iNaturalist photo 45483586 on 2 October 2021.jpg
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Gerrhosaurus
| species = skoogi
| authority = Andersson, 1916
| synonyms = *Gerrhosaurus skoogi
{{small|Andersson, 1916}}
}}
The desert plated lizard (Gerrhosaurus skoogi) is a reptile species endemic to the northern Namib Desert in Namibia and Angola.{{cite web|url=http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species.php?genus=Gerrhosaurus&species=skoogi|title=Gerrhosaurus skoogi|work=The Reptile Database|access-date=2007-12-30}} Also known as the sand plated lizard,[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1095-8312.2003.00168.x/abstract] 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. it is diurnal.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.
Etymology
The 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.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).
Taxonomy
In 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 suggest that this monotypic genus is synonymous to Gerrhosaurus and makes it paraphyletic; therefore A. skoogi was reclassified as Gerrhosaurus skoogi.
Ecology
Gerrhosaurus skoogi mostly eats plants, but it also forages for beetles and other small arthropods that live within the sand dunes that the lizard inhabits.{{Cite journal |last=Robinson |first=M.D. |last2=Barrows |first2=C.W. |date=2013 |title=Namibian and North American sand-diving lizards |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196312002297 |journal=Journal of Arid Environments |volume=93 |pages=116-125}} G. skoogi is considered to be a sand-diving lizard and can move efficiently through sand dunes.
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- 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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Category:Reptiles described in 1916
Category:Endemic fauna of Angola
Category:Taxa named by Lars Gabriel Andersson
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