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''Podarcis cretensis'', the Cretan wall 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
lacertid The Lacertidae are the family of the wall lizards, true lizards, or sometimes simply lacertas, which are native to Afro-Eurasia. It is a diverse family with at least 300 species in 39 genera. They represent the dominant group of reptiles found i ...
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 al ...
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
Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...
(including its satellite islands). Until 2008, these lizards were considered a subspecies of ''
Podarcis erhardii ''Podarcis'' is a genus of lizards in the family Lacertidae. Its members look very similar to lizards of the genus ''Lacerta'', to which they were considered to belong until the 1970s. While similar externally and ecologically, ''Podarcis'' form ...
''. Genetic analysis, however, revealed that it is a separate species closely related to '' Podarcis peloponnesiacus''.


References

cretensis Reptiles described in 1952 Lizards of Europe Endemic fauna of Crete Taxa named by Otto von Wettstein {{lacertidae-stub