You are here » home › advanced search › Agama tassiliensis

Agama tassiliensis GENIEZ, PADIAL & CROCHET, 2011

IUCN Red List - Agama tassiliensis - Least Concern, LC
iNaturalist logo

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Agama tassiliensis?

Add your own observation of
Agama tassiliensis »

Find more photos by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaAgamidae (Agaminae), Sauria, Iguania, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Tassili Agama 
SynonymAgama tassiliensis GENIEZ, PADIAL & CROCHET 2011
Agama tassiliensis — BÖHME 2014: 125 
DistributionMali (Adrar des Ifoghas), Niger (Aïr Mountains), Algeria (Ahaggar Mountains), Libya (Tassili n’Ajjer)

Type locality: Wadi Matendus, Libya  
Reproductionoviparous (phylogenetic imputation, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesHolotype: MNHN-RA 2010.0632 (by original designation and monotypy); Paratype: ZFMK 63669, halfgrown female, collected by H. NICKEL, 12 September 1996. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Agama tassiliensis clearly belongs to the impalearis – boueti – spinosa species group but differs from these species, among other characters, by its red, reddish-orange or orange vertebral stripe in males, long and angular head, long limbs and toes (with 4th toe usually slightly longer than 3rd toe), long but low nuchal crest made of 10 to 15 spines (rarely 8–9 spines) and large number of supralabials (10–16, usually around 12).
 
CommentSimilar species: this species has been previously mistaken either as A. impalearis or A. agama.

Sympatry: Agama tassiliensis is sympatric with A. boueti at least in the Aïr Mountains. 
EtymologyNamed after the Berber word “tassili”, referring to sandstone plateaux of the Sahara. It also refers to the Tassili n’Ajjer, a Saharan massif where the holotype was collected. 
References
  • Bauer, Aaron M.; Jonathan C. DeBoer , Dylan J. Taylor 2017. Atlas of the Reptiles of Libya. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 64 (8): 155-318 - get paper here
  • GENIEZ, PHILIPPE; JOSÉ M. PADIAL & PIERRE-ANDRÉ CROCHET 2011. Systematics of north African Agama (Reptilia: Agamidae): a new species from the central Saharan mountains. Zootaxa 3098: 26–46 - get paper here
  • Gonçalves, Duarte V.; José C. Brito, Pierre-André Crochet, Philippe Geniez, José M. Padial, D. James Harris 2012. Phylogeny of North African Agama lizards (Reptilia: Agamidae) and the role of the Sahara desert in vertebrate speciation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution<br />64 (3): 582–591 - get paper here
  • Kwet, Axel 2012. Liste der im Jahr 2011 neu beschriebenen Reptilien. Terraria-Elaphe 2012 (3): 46-57 - get paper here
  • Trape, J.F.; Trape, S. & Chirio, L. 2012. Lézards, crocodiles et tortues d'Afrique occidentale et du Sahara. IRD Orstom, 503 pp. - get paper here
  • Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:


Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator