The Mallee heath dragon (''Amphibolurus norrisi''), is a species of semi-Arboreal

Agamidae Agamidae is a family (biology), family of over 300 species of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview phylogenetics, Phylogenetic ...

endemic to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. it has also been referenced as Norris’s dragon, Mallee heath lashtail and Mallee heath lashtail dragon.

Taxonomy

The taxonomic description of the Mallee heath dragon was published by Witten and Coventry in 1984 and has not since been updated. the initial specimen was collected by Coventry and Norris in 1978 and was contained by the

Museum of Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage faci ...

after its classification in 1984.

Description

The Mallee heath dragon has a predominantly pale grey body with darker grey stripes extending the flanks and one vertebral stripe extending the body. The vertebral stripe has lateral extensions across the body which sometimes connect to the stipes extending the flanks to the point where the lighter body colour is reduced to smaller blotches. lateral extensions continue onto the tail and gradually become cross bands towards its tip. A dark streak extends from the snout to the ear, above it, a light streak extends from behind the eye across to the ear. Enlarged vertebral, paravertebral and

dorsolateral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

scales, dorsal scales keeled and parallel to vertebral scales. Hindlimb extents to 75% that of the tail, tail extends 200% of the snout, snout measured as 110mm. When threatened this species has the ability to engage in fast-paced bipedal running.

Habitat and distribution

Typical distribution of Mallee heath dragon is within western

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and neighboring area of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, extending across coastal regions of the

Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia. Extent Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...

and into a small area of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. They are typically confined to areas of the Mallee and are often found within Mallee heathlands.

Ecology

Diet

There is little literature specifying diet of the Mallee heath dragon, but following the diets of similar ''

Amphibolurus ''Amphibolurus'' is a genus of lizards in the family Agamidae. The genus is endemic to Australia. Description Characteristics of the genus ''Amphibolurus'' include: * Moderate size nout–vent length * Long limbs and long tail * One to five ...

'' species, deductions on the general dietary preferences can be made. Small arthropods like

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s and

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s have been observed preferences in laboratory experiments although it is believed that most small arthropods would be consumed by the Mallee heath dragon.

Response to fire

Being endemic to a fire prone area, the Mallee heath dragon have evolved to be resistant to fire events. Their semi-arboreal patterns and bipedal running ability allow them to avoid small low-intensity fires, however lower population sizes have been noted after significant fire events.

Conservation

The Mallee heath dragon is classified as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

under the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

and therefore has no conservation work being conducted on it.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2844177 Amphibolurus Agamid lizards of Australia Taxa named by Geoffrey James Witten Taxa named by Albert John Coventry Reptiles described in 1984