Natalie's toad-headed agama (''Phrynocephalus ananjevae'') is a species of

agamid Agamidae is a 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 Phylogenetically, they may be sister to the ...

lizard

endemic 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 else ...

to the

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوه‌های زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgr ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The specific epithet honors Natalia Ananjeva of the Zoological Institute in

St. Petersburg, Russia Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

for her contribution to

herpetological Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning " reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and r ...

research of the family Agamidae and ''

Phrynocephalus ''Phrynocephalus'' is a genus which includes 33 species of small and medium-sized agamid lizards, commonly called toadhead agamas or toad-headed agamas, that inhabit open arid and semiarid environments of Asia and Eastern Europe. The systematic ...

'' in particular.

Description

''P. ananjevae'' is one of the 34 recognized species within the genus ''Phrynocephalus''. It is a medium-sized ''Phrynocephalus'' with enlarged scales on the

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal c ...

side of the body forming a prominent crest on the neck. The nostrils are set farther apart and face forward. It has a tail shorter or equal to the body and a row of enlarged scales along the spine. Males may have slightly longer tails.

References

ananjevae Reptiles of Iran Endemic fauna of Iran Reptiles described in 2013 Taxa named by Daniel Andreevich Melnikov Taxa named by Roman A. Nazarov {{Agamidae-stub