Tropidurus


Tropidurus is a genus of reptiles. The genus includes many species of Neotropical ground lizards. Tropidurus is the type genus of the family Tropiduridae.

Geographic range and habitat

in the genus Tropidurus are found on the South American mainland, especially in the Amazon rainforest, but also in more arid regions.

Common name

No common name is widely used solely for species of the genus Tropidurus. In their native range, they are simply called lagartixa, as are most similar animals. If anything, the Brazilian term calango is used to particularly refer to lizards of the genus Tropidurus.

Taxonomy

The genus Tropidurus contains 30 described species, but new ones continue to be discovered. An additional seven species—the Galápagos lava lizards endemic to the Galápagos Islands—are sometimes placed here, too, but more commonly separated in the genus Microlophus, instead. Similarly, the green thornytail iguana and tropical thorny iguana are now often separated into the minor, but probably distinct Uracentron lineage, instead. In this article, these two genera are kept separate, while Platynotus, Strobilurus, and Tapinurus are included in Tropidurus.

Description

Males and females of all Tropidurus species are marked differently. The male is usually much larger than the female, and his body is more brightly coloured and distinctly patterned. The typical size of Tropidurus lizards varies greatly from habitat to habitat as does the pattern of body markings, even among individuals of the same species. Like many lizards, they show changes of colour with mood and temperature.

Species

These species are recognized as being valid:
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Tropidurus.