Ctenophorus
Ctenophorus, from Ancient Greek κτείς, meaning "comb", and φόρος, meaning "bearing", is a genus of lizards, commonly known as comb-bearing dragons, found in Australia. They are in the dragon lizard family, known as Agamidae.
Description
The genus contains the most diverse group of dragon lizards in Australia. It is the largest group of Australian lizards and it has an extensive radiation in the arid zones. Many of the species of Ctenophorus have been grouped by a similar morphology. The informal names and groupings within this genus — rock dragon, sand dragon, crevice-dragon, ground dragon, and bicycle-dragon — are named after the mythological creature, the dragon.Lizards in the genus Ctenophorus may be confused with lizards in the genera Tympanocryptis and Diporiphora.
Species
There were 34 recognised species in the genus until a new study published in June 2023 discovered four more in South Australia adding up to a total of 38 species. The new species are included in the list below.Ctenophorus adelaidensis – western heath dragonCtenophorus butlerorum – Butler's dragon, Shark Bay heath dragon, Edel heath dragonCtenophorus caudicinctus – ring-tailed bicycle-dragon, ring-tailed dragonCtenophorus chapmani – Chapman's dragon, southern heath dragon, Bight heath dragonCtenophorus clayi – black-shouldered ground-dragon, black-collared dragonCtenophorus cristatus – crested bicycle-dragon, crested dragon, bicycle dragonCtenophorus decresii – tawny crevice-dragon, tawny dragonCtenophorus femoralis – long-tailed sand dragonCtenophorus fionni – Peninsula crevice-dragon, Peninsula dragonCtenophorus fordi – Mallee dragon, Mallee sand dragon, Mallee military dragonCtenophorus gibba – Bulldust ground-dragon, gibber dragonCtenophorus graafi – Graaf's dragonCtenophorus ibiri Ctenophorus infans – Laverton ring-tailed dragonCtenophorus isolepis – central military dragonCtenophorus kartiwarrui Ctenophorus maculatus – spotted military dragon, spotted dragon, spotted sand dragonCtenophorus maculosus – Lake Eyre dragon, salt-lake ground-dragonCtenophorus mckenziei – dwarf bicycle-dragon, McKenzie's dragonCtenophorus mirrityana – Barrier Range dragonCtenophorus modestus Ctenophorus nguyarna Doughty, Maryan, Melville & J. Austin, 2007 – Lake Disappointment dragonCtenophorus nuchalis – central netted dragon, central netted ground-dragonCtenophorus ornatus – ornate dragon, ornate crevice-dragonCtenophorus parviceps – Gnaraloo heath dragon, northwestern heath dragonCtenophorus pictus – painted dragonCtenophorus reticulatus – western netted dragon, western netted ground-dragonCtenophorus rubens – reddening sand-dragon, rufus sand dragonCtenophorus rufescens – rusty crevice-dragon, rusty dragonCtenophorus salinarum – saltpan ground-dragon, claypan dragonCtenophorus scutulatus – lozenge-marked dragon, lozenge-marked bicycle-dragonCtenophorus slateri – Slater's dragonCtenophorus spinodomus Sadlier, Colgan, Beatson & Cogger, 2019 – Eastern Mallee dragonCtenophorus tjakalpa Ctenophorus tjantjalka Johnston, 1992 – ochre dragonCtenophorus tuniluki Ctenophorus vadnappa – red-barred crevice-dragon, red-barred dragonCtenophorus yinnietharra – Yinnietharra crevice-dragon, Yinnietharra rock dragon2023 identification of new species
Danielle Edwards, curator of terrestrial vertebrates at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and Mark Hutchinson, of the South Australian Museum, both started studying sand dragons in 2008, when only three species had been identified. Their June 2023 study published in the Journal of Herpetology provided additional morphological data from all of candidate species, which led to the recognition of 11 species. Of these, four taxa were found to be species rather than subspecies, with another four species newly described.The four new species, all endemic to the state of South Australia, have been assigned names relating to their respective Aboriginal language of their habitat:C. ibiri – meaning "small lizard" in the Barngarla language; found in parts of the Eyre PeninsulaC. kartiwarrui – a derivation of the Dieri language term "kartiwarru", meaning "red-backed lizard'; found in the Strzelecki DesertC. tjakalpa – named after the traditional name for the Great Victoria Desert, where it livesC. tuniluki – meaning "sand lizard" in the Ngarrindjeri language, which is found in the Mallee region along the River Murray