Hypsilurus godeffroyi (PETERS, 1867)
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Hypsilurus godeffroyi
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| Higher Taxa | Agamidae (Amphibolurinae), Sauria, Iguania, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Northern Forest Dragon |
| Synonym | Lophura (Hypsilurus) Godeffroyi PETERS 1867: 707 Gonyocephalus mocrolepis MEYER 1874 Gonyocephalus godeffroyi — BOULENGER 1885: 295 Gonyocephalus godeffroyi — DE ROOIJ 1915: 112 Hypsilurus godeffroyi — MANTHEY & SCHUSTER 1999: 73 Hypsilurus godeffroyi — MANTHEY & DENZER 2006: 12 |
| Distribution | Papua New Guinea, Palau Island, Bismarck Archipelago, Admirality Islands, Fidji Island) Type locality: Pelew Inseln [= Palau Islands] |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Syntype: NMW 21049 Lectotype: ZMB 5891 [designated by MARX 1958] Holotype: ZMB 7510 [Hypsilurus macrolepis PETERS 1873] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus): Body laterally compressed, dorsalssmall, rhomboid, hardly overlapping, keeled, directed backwards and upwards; uniform ventrals significantly larger, strongly keeled. Upper head scales small, slightly heterogeneous; a more or less curved row of enlarged scales below the eye adjacent to the orbit (weakly or not developed in H. boydii, dilophus and spinipes); tympanum visible; males and females with almost equally developed gular pouch (frequently with one or two transverse folds in the relaxed state) and well developed vertebral crest (no dorsal crest in H. modestus). Sexual dimorphism usually only weakly developed. No preanal– or femoral pores (from MANTHEY & DENZER 2006). Diagnosis (species): Medium-sized, slender headed and long–tailed species with homogeneous dorsal scalation and a discontinuous vertebral crest. An area of enlarged scales below the tympanum present; a row of enlarged submaxillaries; anterior edge of the gular pouch without enlarged scales; scales of the gular pouch separated; tail at the base significantly higher. H. godeffroyi differs from schoedei by heterogeneous, widely separated scalation of the anterior part of the gular pouch (vs. nearly homogeneous, only a few scales weakly separated) and in size SVL > 140 mm (vs. < 130 mm); longii, binotatus, macrolepis, papuensis and schultzewestrumi by separated anterior scales on the gular pouch (vs. narrowly spaced or overlapping) as well as a narrower head, HW/SVL ≤ 0.127 (vs. ≥ 0.137), additionally from longii, binotatus, macrolepis and papuensis by smooth anterior scales on the gular pouch (vs. keeled); additionally from longii and macrolepis by a lower number of scales between enlarged submaxillaries and infralabials 3 (vs. 4–5), from binotatus by a discontinuous vertebral crest (vs. continuous) and from schultzewestrumi by the absence of extremely large gular plates (vs. present); boydii, spinipes and dilophus by a homogeneous dorsal scalation (vs. heterogeneous) and a longer tail TL/SVL > 3.0 (vs. < 2.3); all other species by the presence of an area of enlarged scales below the tympanum (vs. absent)(Manthey & Denzer 2006: 12). |
| Comment | Synonymy: MANTHEY & DENZER (2006) removed H. longi from the synonymy of H. godeffroyi. Hypsilurus macrolepis was regarded as valid by MOODY 1980. Type species: Lophura (Hypsilurus) Godeffroyi is the type species of the genus Hypsilurus PETERS 1867: 707. Distribution: Australia (probably erroneous). The type locality is probably in error. BAUER (2004) hypothesizes that the type was from Anchorite, Hermit, or the Ninigo Groups off the northern New Guinea coast. Not listed by COGGER 2014. Not on the Solomon Islands fide McCoy 2015. Key: Manthey & Denzer 2006: 31 provide a key to the species of Hypsilurus, but they include also a number of species that are not assigned to Lophosaurus. They also provide a list of species groups and diagnoses for them, namely the modestus, nigrigularis, godeffroyi, and dilophus groups. |
| Etymology | Named after Johann Caesar Godeffroy (1813-1885), a German trader (of French origin) whose company imported copra from the Pacific, was interested in ornithology. His family moved to Germany to avoid religious persecution. He founded a museum in Hamburg and named it after himself (1860). |
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