The Angolan girdled lizard (''Cordylus angolensis''), also known as the Angolan spiny-tailed lizard,
is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
of lizard in the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
''
Cordylus
The genus ''Cordylus'' (Sauria: Cordylidae) includes a wide variety of species of small to medium spiny lizards from Africa, collectively called girdle-tailed lizards or girdled lizards. All are diurnal and ovoviviparous (live-bearing, without she ...
''. The species is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...
to
Angola
, national_anthem = "Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
, as its names testify,
and is
ovoviviparous
Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...
.
Reproduction
''C. angolensis'' is
ovoviviparous
Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...
,
meaning females keep eggs inside their bodies until ready to hatch.
References
Further reading
*
Bocage JVB. 1895. ''Herpétologie d'Angola et du Congo''. Lisbon: ''Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies''. (''Imprimerie nationale'', printer). xx + 203 pp. + Plates I-XIX. (''Zonurus angolensis'', new species, pp. 24–25). (in French).
Endemic fauna of Angola
Cordylus
Reptiles of Angola
Reptiles described in 1895
Taxa named by José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage
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