''Coryphophylax'' is an

agamid Agamidae is a family containing 582 species in 64 genera of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few locations in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically, ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

endemic to the

Andaman Andaman may refer to: * Andaman Islands, an island group in the Bay of Bengal * Andaman Island, Penang, an artificial island in George Town, Penang * Andaman Sea, a sea of the eastern Indian Ocean * ''Andaman'' (1998 film), an Indian Kannada-lang ...

and

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelago, archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of t ...

and a sister of the Southeast Asian ''

Aphaniotis ''Aphaniotis'' is a genus of Agamidae, agamid lizards from Southeast Asia. Species There are three species in genus ''Aphaniotis'': References

Aphaniotis Reptiles of Southeast Asia Lizard genera Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters {{agamida ...

''. Found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

wet

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

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

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

. 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 Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

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 ''

Aphaniotis ''Aphaniotis'' is a genus of Agamidae, agamid lizards from Southeast Asia. Species There are three species in genus ''Aphaniotis'': References

Aphaniotis Reptiles of Southeast Asia Lizard genera Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters {{agamida ...

'' (and the more distant ''

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

'') has a concealed tympanum while '' Gonocephalus'' has spines on the head or nape.

Species

References

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