Cordylus cordylus

Species of lizard

Cape girdled lizard
At Mountain Zebra N.P., Eastern Cape
Conservation status

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Cordylidae
Genus: Cordylus
Species:
C. cordylus
Binomial name
Cordylus cordylus
Linnaeus, 1758

Cordylus cordylus, the Cape girdled lizard, is a medium-sized lizard indigenous to the southern Cape region of South Africa, where it inhabits crags, rocky outcrops and mountain summits. They evade predators by wedging themselves firmly in rock cracks.[citation needed]

Description

Specimen from the Western Cape

The Cape girdled lizard has a golden-brown body with spiny, keeled body scales, especially on its tail.[citation needed]

Range

It is indigenous to the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, from Saldanha and Cape Town eastwards as far as Lesotho. [citation needed]

Food

They feed on insects, which are caught by rushing and pouncing.[citation needed]

Habits

They live in large colonies (with social hierarchies) on crags, rocky outcrops and mountain summits. They can often be seen sunbathing on top of prominent rocks. The lizards hide in rocky cracks, but come out in the morning and evening to forage. If threatened, they retreat to their holes and cracks in the rocks, wedge themselves in and lock their bodies there by inflating their lungs. Jammed into the cracks like this, with their thorny tail wrapped protectively over their faces, they are incredibly difficult to prise out.[citation needed]

Reproduction

In the autumn, the females give birth to one or two young, which stay very near the mother for the first year. [citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Bates, M.F.; Mouton, P.L.F.N. (2018). "Cordylus cordylus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T110159331A115674365. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T110159331A115674365.en. Retrieved 18 November 2021.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cordylus cordylus.
  • Branch, B., 1998. Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa: Ralph Curtis Books Publishing, Sanibel Island, Florida, 399 pp.
  • Fitzsimons, V. F., 1943. The Lizards of South Africa: Transvaal Museum Memoir, Pretoria.
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Extant Cordylidae species
Chamaesaura
  • Transvaal grass lizard (C. aenea)
  • Cape grass lizard (C. anguina)
  • Large-scale grass lizard (C. macrolepis)
  • Zambian grass lizard (C. miopropus)
  • Cape snake lizard (C. tenuior)
Cordylus
  • Angolan girdled lizard (C. angolensis)
  • Maasai girdled lizard (C. beraduccii)
  • Cape girdled lizard (C. cordylus)
  • Rooiberg girdled lizard (C. imkeae)
  • Limpopo girdled lizard (C. jonesii)
  • Machado's girdled lizard (C. machadoi)
  • Coastal spiny-tailed lizard (C. macropholis)
  • Marungu girdled lizard (C. marunguensis)
  • McLachlan's girdled lizard (C. mclachlani)
  • Mecula girdled lizard (C. meculae)
  • Western dwarf girdled lizard (C. minor)
  • Kaokoveld girdled lizard (C. namakuiyus)
  • Black girdled lizard (C. niger)
  • Nyika girdled lizard (C. nyikae)
  • Oelofsen's girdled lizard (C. oelofseni)
  • N’Dolondolo girdled lizard (C. phonolithos)
  • Rhodesian girdled lizard (C. rhodesianus)
  • Ethiopian girdled lizard (C. rivae)
  • East African spiny-tailed lizard (C. tropidosternum)
  • Ukinga girdled lizard (C. ukingensis)
  • Transvaal girdled lizard (C. vittifer)
Hemicordylus
  • Cape cliff lizard (H. capensis)
  • Dwarf cliff lizard (H. nebulosus)
Karusasaurus
  • Jordan's girdled lizard (K. jordani)
  • African spiny-tailed lizard (K. polyzonus)
Namazonurus
  • Campbell's girdled lizard (N. campbelli)
  • Lawrence's girdled lizard (N. lawrenci)
  • Namaqua girdled lizard (N. namaquensis)
  • Peers’s girdled lizard (N. peersi)
  • Herero girdled lizard (N. pustulatus)
Ninurta
  • Blue-spotted girdled lizard (N. coeruleopunctatus)
Ouroboros
  • Armadillo girdled lizard (O. cataphractus)
Platysaurus
  • Attenborough's flat lizard (P. attenboroughi)
  • Broadley's flat lizard (P. broadleyi)
  • Cape flat lizard (P. capensis)
  • Dwarf flat lizard (P. guttatus)
  • Emperor flat lizard (P. imperator)
  • Common flat lizard (P. intermedius)
  • Lebombo flat lizard (P. lebomboensis)
  • Spotted flat lizard (P. maculatus)
  • Waterberg flat lizard (P. minor)
  • Mitchell's flat lizard (P. mitchelli)
  • Orange-throated flat lizard (P. monotropis)
  • Ocellated flat lizard (P. ocellatus)
  • Sekukhune flat lizard (P. orientalis)
  • Pungwe flat lizard (P. pungweensis)
  • Soutpansberg flat lizard (P. relictus)
  • Striped flat lizard (P. torquatus)
Pseudocordylus
  • Lang's crag lizard (P. langi)
  • Highveld crag lizard (P. melanotus)
  • Cape crag lizard (P. microlepidotus)
  • Spiny crag lizard (P. spinosus)
  • Drakensberg crag lizard (P. subviridis)
  • Northern crag lizard (P. transvaalensis)
Smaug
  • Barberton girdled lizard (S. barbertonensis)
  • Waterberg girdled lizard (S. breyeri)
  • Zoutpansberg girdled lizard (S. depressus)
  • Giant girdled lizard (S. giganteus)
  • Mozambique girdled lizard (S. mossambicus)
  • Regal girdled lizard (S. regius)
  • Swazi dragon lizard (S. swazicus)
  • Van Dam's girdled lizard (S. vandami)
  • Warren's girdled lizard (S. warreni)
Taxon identifiers
Cordylus cordylus
Lacerta cordylus


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