Desert plated lizard

Gerrhosaurus skoogi
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Gerrhosauridae
Genus:	Gerrhosaurus
Species:	G. skoogi
Binomial name
Gerrhosaurus skoogi Andersson, 1916
Synonyms
Gerrhosaurus skoogi Andersson, 1916

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]

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. ^[5]

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 ^[3] 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. ^[6] G. skoogi is considered to be a sand-diving lizard and can move efficiently through sand dunes. ^[6]

References

1. Conradie, W.; Bauer, A.M.; Becker, F. (2020). "Gerrhosaurus skoogi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2020: e.T178229A120595016. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
2. "Gerrhosaurus skoogi". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
3. 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 Society78 (2): 253-261.
4. Nagy KA, Clarke BC, Seely MK, Mitchell D, Lighton JRB (1991). "Water and Energy Balance in Namibian Desert Sand-Dune Lizards Angolosaurus skoogi ". Functional Ecology5 (6): 731-739.
5. 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).
6. Robinson, M.D.; Barrows, C.W. (2013). "Namibian and North American sand-diving lizards". Journal of Arid Environments. 93: 116–125.

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).