AROD > Reptiles / Squamata / Agamidae / Physignathus
Water dragons
Physignathus
- Cuvier, 1829
Pronunciation: | FYE-sig-NATH-uss | |||
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Etymology: | 'puff-cheek'. "Latinisation of Physignathos, King of the Frogs, a character in an ancient Greek poem, The Battle of the Mice and Frogs."1 | |||
Taxonomic notes: |
This Australian member of this genus appears to be only distantly related to the South-East Asian species.2 An old genus name, Istiurus, has been resurrected for the Australian species3 , but the validity of this name is doubtful. The name Intellagama4 is available and appears to be valid. |
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Notes: | A single Australian species, with another species (Physignathus cocincinus) found in South-East Asia. | |||
Statistics: |
Reproductive modes:
Size range: |
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Number of Australian species: | 0 | |||
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- Ehmann, Harald (1992). Encyclopedia of Australian animals: Reptiles. Angus and Robertson. 495 pp - search web for this book
- Hugall, A.F.; Foster, R.; Hutchinson, M.; & Lee, M.S.Y. (2008). Phylogeny of Australasian agamid lizards based on nuclear and mitochondrial genes: implications for morphological evolution and biogeography. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 93(2):343-358. - search web for this article
- Townsend, T.M.; Mulcahy, D.G.; Noonan, B.P.; Sites, J.W.; Kuczynski, C.A.; Wiens, J.J.; & Reeder, T.W. (2011). Phylogeny of iguanian lizards inferred from 29 nuclear loci, and a comparison of concatenated and species-tree approaches for an ancient, rapid radiation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 61(2):363-380.
- Wells, Richard W. & Wellington, Ross C. (1985). A classification of the Amphibia and Reptilia of Australia. Australian Journal of Herpetology, Supplementary Series, 1:1-61. - search web for this article
- Covacevich, J.; Couper, P.; Molnar, RE; Witten, G.; & Young, W. (1990). Miocene dragons from Riversleigh: new data on the history of the family Agamidae (Reptilia: Squamata) in Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 29:339-360. - search web for this article