Platysaurus mitchelli LOVERIDGE, 1953

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Higher Taxa	Cordylidae (Platysaurinae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Mitchell's Flat Lizard
Synonym	Platysaurus mitchelli LOVERIDGE 1953: 234 Platysaurus mitchelli — ADOLPHS 2006 Platysaurus mitchelli — STANLEY et al. 2011 Platysaurus mitchelli — PIETERSEN et al. 2021
Distribution	Malawi Type locality: Ruo River Forest, Mt Mlanje
Reproduction	Oviparous
Types	Holotype: MCZ R-50657
Diagnosis	Diagnosis. This, the most northerly Platysaurus known, appears to be ancestral to the nine other members of the genus from all of which it differs by possessing a pair of supranasals and 12 (instead of 16 to 26) quadrangular ventrals in longitudinal series across the belly. Femoral pores are equally developed in both sexes. P. mitchelli combines certain differential characters utilized in the first major division of my key to the genus (1944p. p. 83), agreeing with the first portion of section 1 only in having the anterior aspect of the limbs covered with strongly keeled scales, but in the four remaining characters it conforms to the second portion of the section and would appear to be more closely related to the Transvaal races of guttatus occurring at Barberton (wilhelmi), on the Waterberg (minor) and on the Drakensberg (orientalis), rather than to the large forms residing in arid lowlands. (Loveridge 1953: 234)
Comment
Etymology	Named after B. L. Mitchell, a naturalist who worked for the Department of Game, Fish, and Tsetse Control in Nyasaland (now Malawi) in the 1940s.
References	Adolphs, K. 2006. Bibliotheca Cordyliformium. Squamata Verlag, Sankt Augustin, 303 pp. Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here Blackburn, D.G. 1993. STANDARDIZED CRITERIA FOR THE RECOGNITION OF REPRODUCTIVE MODES IN SQUAMATE REPTILES. Herpetologica 49 (1): 118-132 - get paper here Broadley, D. G. 1978. A revision of the Genus Platysaurus A. Smith. Occ. Papers Nat. Museum south. Rhodesia, B, 6 (4): 129-185 Loveridge, A. 1953. Zoological Results of a fifth expedition to East Africa. III. Reptiles from Nyasaland and Tete. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 110 (3): 142-322. - get paper here Pietersen, Darren, Verburgt, Luke & Davies, John 2021. Snakes and other reptiles of Zambia and Malawi. Struik Nature / Penguin Random House South Africa, 376 pp., ISBN 9781775847373 Stanley, Edward L.; Aaron M. Bauer; Todd R. Jackman, William R. Branch, P. Le Fras N. Mouton 2011. Between a rock and a hard polytomy: rapid radiation in the rupicolous girdled lizard (Squamata: Cordylidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 58(1): 53-70. - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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