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Xantusiid
Night lizards (family Xantusiidae) are a group of small scincomorph lizards, averaging from less than to over snout–vent length. Most species are viviparous (live-bearing), with the exception of those in the genus '' Cricosaura''. The family has only three living genera, with approximately 34 living species. The genera are divided by geographic range: ''Xantusia'' in southwestern North America and Baja California, '' Cricosaura'' in Cuba, and ''Lepidophyma'', the most populous night lizard genus, in Central America. Three fossil genera are also known: ''Catactegenys'', '' Palepidophyma'', '' Palaeoxantusia''. Biology Night lizards were originally thought to be nocturnal because of their secretive lifestyle, but they are at least in some cases diurnal. Night lizards have evolved to live in very narrow environmental niches—"microhabitat specialization"—such as rock crevices or damp logs, and may spend their entire life under the same cover. Physically, night lizards are c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cricosaura
The Cuban night lizard (''Cricosaura typica'') is a night lizard (family Xantusiidae, subfamily Cricosaurinae) endemic to southern Cuba. It is the only member of the genus ''Cricosaura'', one of three in the night lizard family.Schwartz & Henderson 1991 Etymology ''Cricosaura'' is derived from the Greek words "krikos" and "saura" meaning "ring lizard", perhaps in reference to the rings of caudal scales. The name "''typica''", from the Greek word "typikos", means "typical".Crother 1988 Description The Cuban night lizard differs from the other night lizards in possessing two frontonasal scales, one frontal scale, no parietal scale, and a fourth finger with four phalanges. With a snout-vent length less than 4 cm it is the smallest of the night lizards. Distribution ''Cricosaura typica'' lives exclusively in the west corner of the southernmost coast of Cuba in the Provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba up to 200 m altitude. Known localities for Granma Province include: Hoyo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Lizards
Night lizards (family Xantusiidae) are a group of small scincomorph lizards, averaging from less than to over snout–vent length. Most species are viviparous (live-bearing), with the exception of those in the genus ''Cricosaura''. The family has only three living genera, with approximately 34 living species. The genera are divided by geographic range: ''Xantusia'' in southwestern North America and Baja California, ''Cricosaura'' in Cuba, and ''Lepidophyma'', the most populous night lizard genus, in Central America. Three fossil genera are also known: '' Catactegenys'', '' Palepidophyma'', '' Palaeoxantusia''. Biology Night lizards were originally thought to be nocturnal because of their secretive lifestyle, but they are at least in some cases diurnal. Night lizards have evolved to live in very narrow environmental niches—"microhabitat specialization"—such as rock crevices or damp logs, and may spend their entire life under the same cover. Physically, night lizards are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scincomorph
Scincomorpha is an infraorder and clade of lizards including Skink, skinks (Scincidae) and their close relatives. These include the living families Cordylidae (girdled lizards), Gerrhosauridae (plated lizards), and Xantusiidae (night lizards), as well as many extinct taxa. Other roughly equivalent terms include the suborder Scinciformata, or the Superfamily (taxonomy), superfamily Scincoidea, though different authors use these terms in a broader or more restricted usage relative to true skinks. They first appear in the fossil record about 170 million years ago, during the Jurassic period.Evans, S.E. and Jones, M.E.H. (2010). "The Origin, Early History and Diversification of Lepidosauromorph Reptiles," pp. 27-44 in Bandyopadhyay, S. (ed.), ''New Aspects of Mesozoic Biodiversity'', 27 Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 132./ref> The phylogeny below follows that of Alifanov in 2016. Image:Polyglyphanadon sternbergi - IMG 0694.jpg, ''Polyglyphanodon, Polyglyphanodon sternbergi'' File: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lepidophyma
''Lepidophyma'' is a genus of lizards, commonly called tropical night lizards. The genus ''Lepidophyma'' (Greek for "warty scales") is one of three genera of night lizards (family Xantusiidae), which are a group of viviparous (live-bearing) lizards. There are 20 species of tropical night lizards in the genus ''Lepidophyma'', making it the most populous night lizard genus. Species of the genus ''Lepidophyma'' are distributed throughout Central America, found anywhere from central Mexico to Panama, depending on the particular species. Tropical night lizards, particularly the yellow-spotted species, are sometimes called Central American bark lizards by pet dealers and owners. Species The following 22 species are recognized as being valid. www.reptile-database.org. *''Lepidophyma chicoasensis'' – Sumidero tropical night lizard *''Lepidophyma cuicateca'' – Sunidero tropical night lizard *''Lepidophyma dontomasi'' – MacDougall's tropical night lizard *''Lepidophyma flavim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xantusia
''Xantusia'' is one of three genera of night lizards ( family '' Xantusiidae''). Species of ''Xantusia'' are small to medium-sized, viviparous (live-bearing) lizards found in the U.S. Southwest and in northern Mexico. Taxonomy and etymology The names and descriptions of the genus ''Xantusia'' and the type species ''X. vigilis'' were published in 1859 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, the generic name commemorating the naturalist John Xantus. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Genus ''Xantusia'', p. 291). Species The following is a list of species in the genus. *''Xantusia arizonae'' Klauber, 1931 – Arizona night lizard *''Xantusia bezyi'' Papenfuss, Macey & J.A. Schulte, 2001 – Bezy's night lizard *''Xantusia bolsonae'' Webb, 1970 – bolsón night lizard *''Xantusia extorris'' Webb, 1965 – Durango night lizard *''Xantusia gilberti'' Van Denbur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia although some lizards are more closely related to these two excluded groups than they are to other lizards. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon. Most lizards are quadrupedal, running with a strong side-to-side motion. Some lineages (known as " legless lizards"), have secondarily lost their legs, and have long snake-like bodies. Some such as the forest-dwelling '' Draco'' lizards are able to glide. They are often territorial, the males fighting off other males and signalling, often with bright colours, to attract mates and to intimidate rivals. Lizards are mainly carnivorous, often being sit-and-wait predators; many smaller species eat insects, while the Komodo eats mamma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xantusia Vigilis
The desert night lizard (''Xantusia vigilis'') is a night lizard native to the Southern California Eastern Sierra and the San Gabriel Mountains into Baja California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and extreme western areas of Arizona. Description The desert night lizard attains a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of with a tail roughly the same length. The lizard's coloring is usually grey, yellow-brownish, or olive. Despite their name, night lizards are active during the day. They are known to easily change their color, from light olive (usually during the evening) to dark brown during the day. It is a good climber and usually eats termites, small insects, spiders and other arthropods. The desert night lizard is small for a reptile, with the average adult female at 80 mm in total length and 1.3 g in weight. The average adult male ''Xantusia vigilis'' is 65mm in total length and 1.1 g in weight. Male desert night lizards are distinguishable from females as they are lighter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family ( la, familia, plural ') is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". What belongs to a family—or if a described family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no hard rules for describing or recognizing a family, but in plants, they can be characterized on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions, and there may be no broad consensus across the scientific community for some time. The publishing of new data and opi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nocturnal
Nocturnality is an ethology, animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing (sense), hearing, olfaction, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Some animals, such as cats and ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination (see metaturnal). Others, such as bushbaby, bushbabies and (some) bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures including tarsiers and some owls have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate for the lower light levels at night. More specifically, they have been found to have a larger cornea relative to their eye size than diurnal creatures to increase their : in the low-light conditions. Nocturnality helps wasps, such as ''Apoica flavissima'', avoid hunting in intense sunlight. Diurnality ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexual Maturity
Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural definitions. Most multicellular organisms are unable to sexually reproduce at birth (animals) or germination (e.g. plants): depending on the species, it may be days, weeks, or years until they have developed enough to be able to do so. Also, certain cues may trigger an organism to become sexually mature. They may be external, such as drought (certain plants), or internal, such as percentage of body fat (certain animals). (Such internal cues are not to be confused with hormones, which directly produce sexual maturity – the production/release of those hormones is triggered by such cues.) Role of reproductive organs Sexual maturity is brought about by a maturing of the reproductive organs and the production of gametes. It may also be accompani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbivore
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding. Horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material. A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter, which is more difficult to digest than animal prey. This flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or bacteria. Etymology Herbivore is the anglicized form of a modern Latin coinage, ''herbivora'', cited in Charles Lyell's 1830 '' Principles of Geology''.J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner, eds. (2000) ''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. 8, p. 155. Richard Owen employed the anglicized term in an 1854 work on fossil teeth and skeletons. ''Herbivora'' is derived from Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insectivore
A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were amphibians. When they evolved 400 million years ago, the first amphibians were piscivores, with numerous sharp conical teeth, much like a modern crocodile. The same tooth arrangement is however also suited for eating animals with exoskeletons, thus the ability to eat insects is an extension of piscivory. At one time, insectivorous mammals were scientifically classified in an order called Insectivora. This order is now abandoned, as not all insectivorous mammals are closely related. Most of the Insectivora taxa have been reclassified; those that have not yet been reclassified and found to be truly related to each other remain in the order Eulipotyphla. Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers. Insects make u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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