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Oplurus Cyclurus
''Oplurus cyclurus'', also known commonly as the Madagascar swift and Merrem's Madagascar swift, is a species of lizard in the family Opluridae. The species is endemic to Madagascar. It is arboreal and has a mostly insectivorous diet. Its breeding is timed with the rainy season. Description ''Oplurus cyclurus'' is similar in appearance to ''Oplurus cuvieri''; so the two species may be easily confused. ''Oplurus cyclurus'' is slightly smaller than ''Oplurus cuvieri'', both of which have a distinctive large spiny tail. Neither species has a dorsal crest. ''Oplurus cyclurus'' has a dark brown or black band around the neck and similar paler markings on its back. Behavior, habitat, and geographic range ''O. cyclurus'' is mostly arboreal, living in the spiny forests of southern and southwestern Madagascar. Reproduction ''O. cyclurus'' is oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blasius Merrem
Blasius Merrem (4 February 1761 – 23 February 1824) was a German naturalist, zoologist, ornithologist, mathematician, and herpetologist. In 1804, he became the professor of political economy and botany at the University of Marburg. Early life Merrem was born at Bremen, and studied at the University of Göttingen under Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. He developed an interest in zoology, particularly ornithology. Ornithology He is remembered chiefly as the first ornithologist to propose a division of birds into Ratitae ( ratites or running birds, with a flat sternum) and Carinatae (carinates or flying birds, with a keeled sternum), which formed part of his classification of birds in ''Tentamen Systematis Naturalis Avium'', published in Berlin in 1816 (in ''Abhandlugen Akad. Wiss. Berlin 1812–1813: Phys. Kl.''). Herpetology Similarly, in his 1820 opus, ''Versuch eines Systems der Amphibien'', he was the first scientist to accurately separate amphibians from reptiles, to sep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opluridae
The Opluridae, or Madagascan iguanas, are a family of moderately sized lizards native to Madagascar and Grande Comore. There are eight species in two genera, with most of the species being in ''Oplurus''. The Opluridae, along with ''Brachylophus'' of Fiji, are the only extant members of the Pleurodonta that are found outside the Americas. The family includes species that live amongst rocks, some that live in trees, and two that prefer sandy habitats. All of the species lay eggs, and have teeth that resemble those of the true iguanas. A study was done to identify the foraging mode of the ''Oplurus'' species. The species was highly favored to be ambush foragers due to their low movement per min (MPM) and percent time spent moving (PTM) During rainy and dry seasons of the jardin botanique A of Ampijoroa forest. the two genera are easily distinguished. The smaller two '' Chalarodon'' species have a dorsal crest, particularly distinct in males, and has a smoother tail covered in similar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles Of Madagascar
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). As of March 2022, the Reptile Database includes about 11,700 species. In the traditional Linnaean classification system, birds are considered a separate class to reptiles. However, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to other living reptiles, and so modern cladistic classification systems include birds within Reptilia, redefining the term as a clade. Other cladistic definitions abandon the term reptile altogether in favor of the clade Sauropsida, which refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. The study of the traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. The earliest known proto-reptiles originated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oplurus
''Oplurus'' is a genus of Malagasy iguanian lizards, most of which are rock-dwelling terrestrial species. The sister genus to ''Oplurus'' is ''Chalarodon'', which contains two species: '' Chalarodon madagascariensis'' and '' Chalarodon steinkampi'', which are terrestrial iguanas and easily distinguished from ''Oplurus'' by its smaller size and the presence of a distinct dorsal crest. Species The six recognized species in the genus ''Oplurus'' comprise two distinct clades. Uwe Schlüter (2013). ''Madagaskarleguane - Lebensweise, Pflege und Fortpflanzung''. KUS-Verlag, Rheinstetten. . *Spiny-tailed arboreal clade: ** Merrem's Madagascar swift ('' Oplurus cyclurus'') **Collared iguanid (''Oplurus cuvieri'') *Saxicolous (rock dwelling) clade: **Madagascar blue iguana ('' Oplurus fierinensis'') (greyish-blue without dark dorsal bands) ** Grandidier's Madagascar swift ('' Oplurus grandidieri'' (with light mid-dorsal band) ** Duméril's Madagascar swift ('' Oplurus quadrimacul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oviparity
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and monotremes. In traditional usage, most insects (one being ''Culex pipiens'', or the common house mosquito), molluscs, and arachnids are also described as oviparous. Modes of reproduction The traditional modes of reproduction include oviparity, taken to be the ancestral condition, traditionally where either unfertilised oocytes or fertilised eggs are spawned, and viviparity traditionally including any mechanism where young are born live, or where the development of the young is supported by either parent in or on any part of their body. However, the biologist Thierry Lodé recently divided the traditional category of oviparous reproduction into two modes that he named ovuliparity and (true) oviparity respectively. He distinguished the tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oplurus Cuvieri
''Oplurus cuvieri'', commonly known as the collared iguana, the collared iguanid lizard, Cuvier's Madagascar skink, Cuvier's Madagascar swift, and the Madagascan collared iguana, is a species of arboreal lizard in the family Opluridae. The species is native to Madagascar and Comoros. There are two recognized subspecies. ''O. cuvieri'' is the largest of six species in the genus ''Oplurus''. Etymology The specific name, ''cuvieri'', is in honor of French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Oplurus cuvieri'', p. 63). Description As some of the common names suggest, ''O. cuvieri'' has a distinctive black collar that stands out against the body which is speckled with lighter spots. It has a large head, and the relatively short tail has spiny scales. The female is a duller brown colour. The images below show considerable variation i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insectivorous
A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were amphibians. When they evolved 400 million years ago, the first amphibians were piscivores, with numerous sharp conical teeth, much like a modern crocodile. The same tooth arrangement is however also suited for eating animals with exoskeletons, thus the ability to eat insects is an extension of piscivory. At one time, insectivorous mammals were scientifically classified in an order called Insectivora. This order is now abandoned, as not all insectivorous mammals are closely related. Most of the Insectivora taxa have been reclassified; those that have not yet been reclassified and found to be truly related to each other remain in the order Eulipotyphla. Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers. Insects make up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa across the Mozambique Channel. At Madagascar is the world's List of island countries, second-largest island country, after Indonesia. The nation is home to around 30 million inhabitants and consists of the island of Geography of Madagascar, Madagascar (the List of islands by area, fourth-largest island in the world), along with numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent around 90 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90% of wildlife of Madagascar, its wildlife is endemic. Human settlement of Madagascar occurred during or befo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family ( la, familia, plural ') is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". What belongs to a family—or if a described family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no hard rules for describing or recognizing a family, but in plants, they can be characterized on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions, and there may be no broad consensus across the scientific community for some time. The publishing of new data and opini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Duméril
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation of the Greek name ''Andreas'', a short form of any of various compound names derived from ''andr-'' 'man, warrior'. The name is popular in Norway and Sweden. Cognate names Cognate names are: * : Andrei,[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia although some lizards are more closely related to these two excluded groups than they are to other lizards. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon. Most lizards are quadrupedal, running with a strong side-to-side motion. Some lineages (known as "legless lizards"), have secondarily lost their legs, and have long snake-like bodies. Some such as the forest-dwelling ''Draco'' lizards are able to glide. They are often territorial, the males fighting off other males and signalling, often with bright colours, to attract mates and to intimidate rivals. Lizards are mainly carnivorous, often being sit-and-wait predators; many smaller species eat insects, while the Komodo eats mammals a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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