The expression in females of ornaments thought to be the target of sexual selection in males is a long-standing puzzle. Two main hypotheses are proposed to account for the existence of conspicuous ornaments in both sexes (mutual ornamentation): genetic correlation between the sexes and sexual selection on females as well as males. We examined the pattern of ornament gains and losses in 240 spec...

Despite exhibiting considerable interspecific variation in body mass, flying lizards of the genus Draco are isometric in their area-mass scaling relationships and exhibit no significant compensatory variation in wing aspect ratio. Thus, larger species are expected to be relatively poor gliders, in lieu of behavioral or physiological compensation, when compared with smaller congeners. Here we te...

Two new species of pterygosomatid mites parasitizing lizards of the family Agamidae are described: Pterygosoma aqabensis sp. nov. from Pseudotrapelus aqabensis Melnikov et al. and Pterygosoma dhofarensis sp.nov. from Pseudotrapelus dhofarensis Melnikov and Pierson both from Arabian Peninsula. Pterygosoma aqabensis sp. nov. is most closely related to P. dhofarensis sp. nov. but differs by the pr...

Th e amphibian and reptile specimens, crushed due to vehicle traffi c, were recorded during herpetological trips to various regions of Anatolia between 2005 and 2009. In total, 183 individuals were detected, representing 28 species from 4 amphibian [Salamandridae (1), Ranidae (3), Bufonidae (2), and Hylidae (2)], 3 turtle [Testudinidae (1), Emydidae (1), and Geoemydidae (2)], 3 lizard [Agamidae...

Metabolic response to high altitude remains poorly explored in reptiles. In the present study, the metabolic characteristics of Phrynocephaluserythrurus (Lacertilia: Agamidae), which inhabits high altitudes (4500 m) and Phrynocephalusprzewalskii (Lacertilia: Agamidae), which inhabits low altitudes, were analysed to explore the metabolic regulatory strategies for lizards living at high-altitude ...

Squamate reptiles are traditionally divided into six groups: Iguania, Anguimorpha, Scincomorpha, Gekkota (these four are lizards), Serpentes (snakes), and Amphisbaenia (the so-called worm lizards). The Iguania is recognized as having two major lineages the Iguanidae and Acrodonta (Agamidae and Chamaeleonidae). Currently, there are complete mitochondrial genomes from three Anguimorpha (Kumazawa,...

Recent fieldwork in southern Tanintharyi revealed the presence of a small Green Crested Lizard in the wet evergreen forest. We generated mtDNA sequence data (ND2) that demonstrates that this population's nearest relative is Bronchocela rayaensis Grismer et al., 2015 of Pulau Langkawi, northwestern Peninsular Malaysia and Phuket Island. Morphologically the Burmese Bronchocela shares many feature...