''Coryphophylax'' is an

agamid Agamidae is a family of over 300 species of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically, they may be sister to th ...

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 ...

endemic to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and a sister of the Southeast Asian ''

Aphaniotis ''Aphaniotis'' is a genus of agamid lizards from Southeast Asia. Species There are three species in genus ''Aphaniotis'': *'' Aphaniotis acutirostris'' – Indonesia earless agama *''Aphaniotis fusca ''Aphaniotis fusca'', the dusky earless ...

''. Found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

wet

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, they are common in suitable habitats and shows variations across islands and are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

. The genus is absent on Great Nicobar Island, with its southernmost occurrence on the island of Kondul. The tsunami of December 2004 may have affected island-wide distributions in the Nicobar Islands of several species and also their gene-flow.

Taxonomic history

The species from the Andaman Islands was described by

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the museum of the Asiatic Society of India in Calcutta. Blyth was born in London in 1810. In 1841 ...

as ''Tiaris subcristata'' in 1860 but technically published in 1861. This species was described by Fitzinger in Steindachner's publication of 1867 and as ''Tiaris humei'' by Stoliczka in 1873 and these names are considered junior synonyms but placed in the genus erected by Fitzinger. The closely related genus ''

'' (and the more distant ''

Otocryptis ''Otocryptis'' is a genus of agamid lizards from the Indian subcontinent. It is the sister group for the clade formed by ''Sitana'' and '' Sarada''. The divergence is estimated to have occurred about 12 million years ago. ''Otocryptis'' are ter ...

'') has a concealed tympanum while ''

Gonocephalus :Gonocephalus ''is also a synonym of the catfish genus'' Clarotes. ''Gonocephalus'' is a genus of agamid lizards endemic to southeast Asia. Taxonomy Species from Melanesia and Australia which were formerly included in ''Gonocephalus'' are now ...

'' has spines on the head or nape.

Species

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2998206 Lizard genera Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger