Meroles ctenodactylus (SMITH, 1838)

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Higher Taxa	Lacertidae, Eremiadinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Giant Desert Lizard, Smith's Sand Lizard, Smith's Desert Lizard
Synonym	Lacerta ctenodactylus SMITH 1838 Eremias capensis — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1839: 328 (fide BISCHOFF, p.c.) Scapteira ctenodactyla — LOVERIDGE 1936: 63 Scaptira ctenodactylus — FITZSIMONS 1943: 366 Meroles ctenodactyla — BURRAGE 1978 Meroles ctenodactylus — HARRIS et al. 1998 Meroles ctenodactylus — SZCZERBAK 1989 Meroles ctenodactylus — EDWARDS et al. 2013
Distribution	Outermost southwest of Namibia and South Africa (westernmost Cape province) Type locality: Great Namaqualand, Southwest Africa
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Types: lost (fide FITZSIMONS 1943); there are however two specimens of Smith's Acanthodactylus capensis in the British Museum of Natural HIstory, but these though regarded as the types, do not appear to be the actual specimens figured and described by Smith in his “Illustrations".
Diagnosis
Comment	Sympatry: M. cuneirostris, M. anchietae in S Namibia.
References	Arnold, E.N. 1991. Relationships of the South African lizards assigned to Aporosaura, Meroles and Pedioplanis (Reptilia: Lacertidae). Journal of Natural History 25: 783–807 - get paper here Bates, M.F.; Branch, W.R., Bauer, A.M.; Burger, M., Marais, J.; Alexander, G.J. & de Villliers, M.S. (eds.) 2014. Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Suricata 1. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, 512 pp. Bauer, A.M., and Branch, W.R. 2003. The herpetofauna of the Richtersveld National Park, Northern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. Herpetological Natural History 8: 111-160 [2001] BRANCH, W. R. 2013. Meroles ctenodactylus (Smith 1838). African Herp News (59): 54-56 - get paper here Branch, William R. 1994. Herpetofauna of the Sperrgebeit [sic] Region of Southern Namibia. Herpetological Natural History 2 (1): 1-11. Burrage B R 1978. Reptiles collected from the west coast of the Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 81 (3): 265-271 - get paper here Cunningham, Peter. 2013. Meroles ctenodactylus (Smith, 1838) Smith's Desert Lizard. Diet. African Herp News (60): 22-23 - get paper here Duméril, A. M. C. and G. Bibron. 1839. Erpétologie Générale on Histoire Naturelle Complète des Reptiles. Vol. 5. Roret/Fain et Thunot, Paris, 871 pp. - get paper here EDWARDS, SHELLEY; WILLIAM R. BRANCH, BIEKE VANHOOYDONCK, ANTHONY HERREL, G. JOHN MEASEY, KRYSTAL A. TOLLEY 2013. Taxonomic adjustments in the systematics of the southern African lacertid lizards (Sauria: Lacertidae). Zootaxa 3669 (2): 101–114 - get paper here FitzSimons, V.F. 1943. The lizards of South Africa. Transvaal Museum Memoir No.1 (Pretoria), 528 pp. Fu, J. 1998. Toward the phylogeny of the family Lacertidae: implications from mitochondrial DNA 12S and 16S gene sequences (Reptilia: Squamata). Mol Phylogenet Evol 9 (1): 118-30 - get paper here Harris, D. James; E. Nicholas Arnold, and Richard H. Thomas 1998. Rapid Speciation, Morphological Evolution, and Adaptation to Extreme Environments in South African Sand Lizards (Meroles) as Revealed by Mitochondrial Gene Sequences. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 10 (1): 37–48 - get paper here Herrmann, H.-W.; W.R. Branch 2013. Fifty years of herpetological research in the Namib Desert and Namibia with an updated and annotated species checklist. Journal of Arid Environments 93: 94–115 - get paper here Loveridge, A. 1936. African reptiles and amphibians in the Field Museum of Natural History. Zool. Ser. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Chicago, 22 (1): 1-122 - get paper here Pérez I de Lanuza G, Font E 2016. The evolution of colour pattern complexity: selection for conspicuousness favours contrasting within-body colour combinations in lizards. J Evol Biol. doi: 10.1111/jeb.12835 - get paper here Robinson, M.D.; C.W. Barrows 2013. Namibian and North American sand-diving lizards. Journal of Arid Environments 93: 116–125 - get paper here Smith, A. 1838. Contributions to the Natural History of Southern Africa. Art. VIII. Mag. Nat. Hist., London, 2 (14): 92-94 Szczerbak, Nikolai N. 1989. Catalogue of the African Sand lizards (Reptilia: Sauria: Eremiainae: Lampreremias, Pseuderemias, Taenieremias, Mesalina, Meroles). Herpetozoa 1 (3/4): 119-132. - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/reptiles/squamata/lacertidae/Meroles… http://www.lacerta.de/AS/Taxon.php?Genus=46&Species=212 http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/bioinformatics/lizards/images/spenllive1.htm http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/bioinformatics/lizards/images/spenllive2.htm Google images

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