Agama tassiliensis GENIEZ, PADIAL & CROCHET, 2011
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Agama tassiliensis
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| Higher Taxa | Agamidae (Agaminae), Sauria, Iguania, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Tassili Agama |
| Synonym | Agama tassiliensis GENIEZ, PADIAL & CROCHET 2011: 32 Agama tassiliensis — BÖHME 2014: 125 |
| Distribution | Mali (Adrar des Ifoghas), Niger (Aïr Mountains), Algeria (Ahaggar Mountains), Libya (Tassili n’Ajjer) Type locality: Tassili n’Ajjer (south-eastern Algeria), 5 km south-south-west from Iherir, WGS84 25.3500°N / 8.3911°E / 1428m elevation. |
| Reproduction | oviparous (phylogenetic imputation, fide Zimin et al. 2022) |
| Types | Holotype: MNHN-RA 2010.0632, adult male collected on April 21th 2009 (by original designation and monotypy); Paratype: ZFMK 63669, halfgrown female, collected by H. NICKEL, 12 September 1996. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis. A medium to large size Agama (reaching 13.4 cm of SVL and around 37 cm of total length) belonging to the Agama impalearis complex (medium proportions, dorsal scales regularly keeled, at least 3 spines on the anterior border of the ear opening, a nuchal crest in both sexes but no caudal crest, see also genetic data) and characterized by the following features (see also Tables 3, 4, 5, 6 and Fig. 2, 3, 4): head angular, 63 to 73 rows of dorsal scales at midbody, 4th toe slightly larger than 3rd (sometimes of same size), a relatively large number of supralabials (around 12, min. 10 max. 16), a large number of subdigital lamellae (15–20 under the 4th finger, average 17.37, and 18–24 under the 4th toe, average 20.47), a well-developed crest composed by (8) 10 to 15 spines and a frequently orange eye contour. Males in breeding condition can be brightly coloured: head and throat orange or red, body dark blue, legs and tail blue, crest and vertebral stripe generally reddish to red. Also, the new species is diagnosed by possessing 6 pure simple private nucleotide character states in the fragment of mitochondrial 16S gene sequence when compared with the other members of the impalearis clade (all positions refer to the Pseudotrapelus complete mitochondrial sequence NC_013603, when they are dependent on ambiguous alignment this is indicated): A at positions 2127 (ambiguous alignment) and 2194; two Cs inserted immediately after position 1926; G at position 2218; and T, inserted after position 1926, 4bp after the two Cs. (Geniez et al. 2011) |
| Comment | Similar 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. |
| Etymology | Named 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. |
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