Meroles
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox
Meroles is a genus of lizards, commonly known as desert lizards, in the family Lacertidae. The genus contains eight species, inhabiting southwestern Africa, especially the Namib Desert.
DescriptionEdit
Desert lizards have fine, granular dorsal scales. The hind toes are elongated and possess fringes of scales.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
SpeciesEdit
The following eight species are recognized as being valid.<ref>Template:EMBL genus www.reptile-database.org.</ref>
- Meroles anchietae Template:Small - shovel-snouted lizard, Anchieta's dune lizard
- Meroles ctenodactylus Template:Small - giant desert lizard, Smith's sand lizard, Smith's desert lizard
- Meroles cuneirostris Template:Small -wedge-snouted sand lizard, wedge-snouted desert lizard
- Meroles knoxii Template:Small - Knox's ocellated sand lizard, Knox's desert lizard
- Meroles micropholidotus Template:Small - small-scaled desert lizard
- Meroles reticulatus Template:Small - reticulate sand lizard
- Meroles squamulosus Template:Small - common rough-scaled lizard, savanna lizard
- Meroles suborbitalis Template:Small - spotted sand lizard
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Meroles.
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Gray JE (1838). "Catalogue of the Slender-tongued Saurians, with Descriptions of many new Genera and Species". Annals and Magazine of Natural History, [First Series] 1: 274–283, 388–394. (Meroles, new genus, p. 282).