Elgaria paucicarinata (FITCH, 1934)
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Higher Taxa | Anguidae (Gerrhonotinae), Diploglossa, Anguimorpha, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
Subspecies | |
Common Names | E: San Lucan Alligator Lizard S: Lagarto de Cuatro Patitas |
Synonym | Gerrhonotus paucicarinatus FITCH 1934: 173 Gerrhonotus multicarinatus DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1939: 404 (fide FITCH 1938) Gerrhonotus paucicarinatus — FITCH 1938 Elgaria paucicarinata — TIHEN 1949: 595 Elgaria paucicarinata — SMITH & TAYLOR 1950: 206 Gerrhonotus paucicarinatus — WERMUTH 1969: 26 Gerrhonotus paucicarinatus — STEBBINS 1985: 241 Elgaria paucicarinata — GOOD 1988: 77 Elgaria paucicarinata — LINER 1994: 47 |
Distribution | Mexico (S Baja California) Type locality: Todos Santos, Baja California. |
Reproduction | oviparous |
Types | Holotype: MVZ 11768 (Mus. Vert. Zool. UC) |
Diagnosis | Diagnostic characters. Size relatively small (head and body length less than 100 mm. in adults); 50 or more transverse scale rows from ear to back of thigh; plates on top of head smooth; scales on upper arm and sides of tail smooth; labial region transversely marked with black and white; lateral fold white with reticulations of black; dorsal longitudinal scale rows on body either 16 or 14 (Fitch 1934). DEFINITION. A relatively small species of Gerrhonotus (maximum snout-vent length about 110 mm), with dorsal scales in 14 to 16 longitudinal rows and 49 to 53 transverse rows. Eight middorsal scale rows are moderately keeled on the body and tail; scales on the sides of the body are slightly keeled. Lateral caudals, temporals, and upper arm scales are smooth. Scales on the upper side of the thigh and lateral side of the tibia are keeled. The interoccipital is single, and there are usually eight postnasals. The ground color is brown to gray-olive. The head is variably marked with dark brown, and a temporal band is present in some individuals. In adults, the body is marked with eleven to thirteen irregular dark bands that include white-tipped scales on the sides. The lateral fold is white to light gray, traversed by irregular dark bars extending from the bands of the sides. Some adults have a broad, bronze-colored longitudinal band and reduced transverse bands. Adults have alternating black and white markings on the labials, giving the face a striped appearance. Juveniles have a broad, bronze-colored longitudinal dorsal band (from Lais 1976). |
Comment | Subspecies: Elgaria paucicarinata cedrosensis (FITCH 1934) has been elevated to full (evolutionary) species fide GRISMER & HOLLINGSWORTH 2001. Distribution: see maps in GRISMER & HOLLINGSWORTH 2001, Leavitt et al. 2017: Fig. 1. One of the diagnostic characters for E. paucicarinata is that it is weakly keeled (Good, 1988). However, lizards of the central peninsular population are strongly keeled, and large adults approach the condition found in E. multicarinata. |
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