Echinosaura horrida BOULENGER, 1890
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Echinosaura horrida
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| Higher Taxa | Gymnophthalmidae (Cercosaurinae), Sauria, Gymnophthalmoidea, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Rough Teiid S: Corcho de agua |
| Synonym | Echinosaura horrida BOULENGER 1890: 83 Echinosaura horrida — PETERS et al. 1970: 112 Echinosaura horrida — KÖHLER 2000: 101 Echinosaura horrida — KÖHLER 2004 Echinosaura horrida — VALENCIA-ZULETA et al. 2014 Echinosauria horrida — RIOS et al. 2011 (in error) Echinosaura horrida — VÁSQUEZ-RESTREPO et al. 2019 Echinosaura horrida — YÁNEZ-MUÑOZ et al. 2021 |
| Distribution | NW Ecuador, Colombia (incl. Valle del Cauca, Chocó), elevation in Ecuador: 200-860 m Type locality: Ecuador. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Syntypes: BMNH 1946.8.31.60-61 (2) |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus Echinosaura): Phenotypic characteristics of Echinosaura include: (1) dorsal scales heterogeneous, with small or granular, irregular scales intermixed with tubercular or spine-like scales; (2) dorsal surface of the head with large, symmetrical and paired scales anteriorly, and with irregular small scales posteriorly; (3) internasal single or divided; (4) frontonasals paired; (5) prefrontals usually absent; (6) frontal scale single or divided; (7) frontoparietals small, paired; (8) interparietal and postparietal scales not well defined (Fig. 10); (9) postmental large, single (reduced or absent in E. brachycephala); (10) chin shields usually large, in one pair (smaller in E. horrida, not differentiated in E. brachycephala) (Fig. 10); (11) lower eyelid developed, with a palpebral disc divided into several, unpigmented scales; (12) ventral scales squared (or rounded squares), not imbricated; (13) limbs pentadactyl, digits clawed; (14) males with well-developed femoral pores, females usually lacking them or having fewer femoral pores than males (if present, weakly developed or barely distinguishable). Morphological variation among species of Echinosaura is summarized in Table 2 and 3. Echinosaura differs from other cercosaurines, except Centrosaura, Gelanesaurus, Neusticurus, Potamites and Rheosaurus, in having heterogeneous dorsal scalation. It differs from the other genera with heterogeneous dorsal scalation in having small or granular, irregular dorsal scales intermixed with tubercular or spine-like scales (vs. small irregular or granular dorsal scales intermixed with large or polygonal keeled scales), several irregular scales on the parietal region (vs. regular scales on parietal region) and usually one pair of large chin shields (vs. usually more than one pair of large chin shields). A comparison of Echinosaura and closely related and morphologically similar genera is given in Table 5 and Figure 9 in VÁSQUEZ-RESTREPO et al. 2019. |
| Comment | Subspecies: The subspecies E. h. palmeri BOULENGER 1911 and E. h. panamensis BARBOUR 1924 are now considered as valid species. Type species: Echinosaura horrida BOULENGER 1890: 83 is the type species of the genus Echinosaura BOULENGER 1890. Key: see Uzzell 1965 for a key to the 3 species known at the time, horrida, panamensis, palmeri. He also presents a table with data for femoral pores, SVL/tail length, and subdigital lamellae. Comparisons: YÁNEZ-MUÑOZ et al. 2021: 20 have a table of morphological characters across all species of Echinosaura. |
| Etymology | The species may have been named after the spiny scales on the back of the species which give the impression as if this is a dangerous and thus horrible animal. Although not explicitly stated by Boulenger (1890), the genus name Echinosaura (gender feminine) is presumably formed from the Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος, echinos (hedgehog or urchin) and σαύρα, saura (lizard) – a spiny lizard. |
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