''Acanthodactylus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

lacertid The Lacertidae are the family of the wall lizards, true lizards, or sometimes simply lacertas, which are native to Afro-Eurasia. It is a diverse family with at about 360 species in 39 genera. They represent the dominant group of reptiles found i ...

lizard Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...

s, commonly referred to as fringe-fingered lizards, fringe-toed lizards (though the latter common name is also used for the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

lizard genus '' Uma''), and spiny-toed lizards.

Geographic range

The approximately 40

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the genus ''Acanthodactylus'' are native to a wide area in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, southern

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Western Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

; across the

Sahara Desert The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

, to the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, and east through the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

, to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and western

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Salvador A (1982)
"A revision of the lizards of the genus ''Acanthodactylus'' (Sauria: Lacertidae)".
''Bonn. Zool. Monogr.'' (16): 1–167.

Habitat

Though lizards of the genus ''Acanthodactylus'' prefer dry and sparsely vegetated regions, they are not strictly tied to an

arid Aridity is the condition of geographical regions which make up approximately 43% of total global available land area, characterized by low annual precipitation, increased temperatures, and limited water availability.Perez-Aguilar, L. Y., Plata ...

terrain; so it is not uncommon to come across them in various environments.

Description

Members of the genus ''Acanthodactylus'' possess the following combination of traits: *Lacking occipital scales, *Flat

ventral scales In snakes, the ventral scales or gastrosteges are the enlarged and transversely elongated scales that extend down the underside of the body from the neck to the anal scale. When counting them, the first is the anteriormost ventral scale that cont ...

, *Fingers with three or four series of scales, *Toes with comb-like projections, *

Femoral pores Femoral may refer to: *Having to do with the femur *Femoral artery * Femoral intercourse *Femoral nerve *Femoral triangle *Femoral vein In the human body, the femoral vein is the vein that accompanies the femoral artery in the femoral sheath ...

present, * Parietal foramen present. The coloration and pattern of spots of ''Acanthodactylus'' is extremely variable, so it is unsurprising that zoologists have, at one time or another, classified every variety as a separate species.

Behavior

Every saurian of the genus ''Acanthodactylus'' is very aggressive and gets continuously involved in skirmishes with other members of its species. The

male Male (Planet symbols, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or Egg cell, ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot sexual repro ...

s strenuously defend the borders of their

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

Reproduction

''Acanthodactylus'' are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

. The number of eggs in a clutch ranges from 3 to 7. The total length of a sexually mature adult of the genus is, on average, .

Classification

Genus ''Acanthodactylus'' ''

Nota bene ( ; plural: ) is the Latin language, Latin phrase meaning ''note well''. In manuscripts, ''nota bene'' is abbreviated in upper-case as NB and N.B., and in lower-case as n.b. and nb; the editorial usages of ''nota bene'' and ''notate bene'' fi ...

'': A Binomial nomenclature, binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Acanthodactylus''.

References

External links

''Acanthodactylus'': Fringe-Fingered Lizards
{{Authority control Acanthodactylus, Desert fauna Lizard genera Taxa named by Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann