Pseudocordylus melanotus

Pseudocordylus melanotus or Common crag lizard is an ovoviviparous lizard, tolerant of temperatures no lower than -5 °C,[1][2] and consequently occurring on rocky outcrops, hills and mountains throughout southern Africa. Various subspecies are found in the inland mountains of the Eastern Cape (Amatole-Great Winterberg) and Cape Fold Mountains, the Natal and Transvaal Drakensberg and foothills, Lesotho and Swaziland[3] with an isolated population at Suikerbosrand,[4] and also at the Magaliesberg which geologically is part of the Transvaal Drakensberg.[5][6] The type specimen was collected by the Scots zoologist Andrew Smith in 1838 in the hills between the main branches of the Orange River east of Philippolis, Orange Free State.[7]

Common crag lizard
P. melanotus in the Magaliesberg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Cordylidae
Genus: Pseudocordylus
Species:
P. melanotus
Binomial name
Pseudocordylus melanotus
A. Smith, 1838
Synonyms
  • Cordylus melanotus Smith 1838
  • Pseudocordylus microlepidotus melanotus Loveridge 1944
  • Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus De Waal 1978
  • Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus Visser 1984
  • Cordylus melanotus Frost et al. 2001
  • Pseudocordylus melanotus Stanley et al. 2011

References
  1. McConnachie, S.; Alexander, G.J.; Whiting, M.J. (2007). "Lower temperature tolerance in the temperate, ambush foraging lizard Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus". Journal of Thermal Biology. 32 (2): 66–71. doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2006.10.002.
  2. McConnachie, Suzanne (October 27, 2006). An energy budget for the lizard Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus, an extreme sit-and-wait forager (Doctoral dissertation). University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. hdl:10539/1491.
  3. http://www.sntc.org.sz/reptiles/speciesinfo.asp?spid=92%5B%5D
  4. McConnachie, Suzanne (2014). "The effects of temperature on oxygen consumption in the lizard Pseudocordylus melanotus from Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve". African Journal of Herpetology. 63 (1): 57–69. doi:10.1080/21564574.2014.892901.
  5. Bates, Michael Francis (April 2007). An analysis of the Pseudocordylus melanotus complex (Sauria: Cordylidae) (Doctoral dissertation). Stellenbosch University. hdl:10019.1/21451.
  6. http://research.amnh.org/users/estanley/Ed_Stanley/Pseudocordylus.html%5B%5D
  7. https://cites.org/common/com/nc/tax_ref/Cordylus_CoP14_update.pdf%5B%5D
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