"It is - still - the best zoological blog out there, period"
READ ME: I'M NEW! With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long, happy hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go here.
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« Big cats in Britain: this time it's personal | Main | Ermentrude the liolaemine »
Category: herpetology
Posted on: February 26, 2008 6:33 PM, by Darren Naish
This is Ermentrude, or Ermie, the best lizard I ever kept. Despite his name he was a male (I think). He got used to being handled but didn't like having his claws clipped. Strangely, he liked banana and once he ate a load of white butterfly chrysalises. Anyway... can you succeed where so many have failed. Can you identify the species that Ermentrude belonged to? The photos aren't great, but they're all I have...
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Comments
A gorgon?
Posted by: Stevo Darkly | February 26, 2008 8:01 PM
Perhaps a Tropidurus or related species?
Posted by: Filipe Martinho | February 26, 2008 8:08 PM
A gorgon?
No fangs.
*resists*urge*to*self*plug*
ah. Better.
Posted by: Will Baird | February 26, 2008 8:22 PM
Albino squirrel? Sealion? Baboon? Rhinogradentian?
Hmm... I was thinking tropidurid, lacertid or teiid, but there's something about the head in the second photo that hints at agamid or iguanid...
Posted by: Hai~Ren | February 26, 2008 8:44 PM
Or a Liolaemus, at least something within that clade. One of those South American groups, anyway - sceloporine head but the body and tail are wrong, but it's definitely an iguanian.
Posted by: Lars | February 26, 2008 9:19 PM
If it were Australian, it would be an Egernia. But it's not (with those caudal scales in rings!), so it's going to be something from southern Africa or South America (or Madagascar?). I wouldn't say definitely whether it's scincomorph or iguanian, but it's one of the two and I'm pretty sure it's neither scincid, lacertid nor acrodontan. Far too many legs, anyhow.
Posted by: John Scanlon, FCD | February 26, 2008 9:30 PM
It's an ordinary house cat, F. sylvestris catus. The lack of any recognizable landscape features for scale gives the appearance of a small lizard.
Fool me once, ...
Posted by: HP | February 27, 2008 12:16 AM
It's a tetrapod! (Ha, got that one right).
Other than that, I think it looks vaguely like an agamid...
Posted by: Emile | February 27, 2008 1:52 AM
*Eremias*? Although the head looks a little bit too iguanian for a lacertid...
Posted by: johannes | February 27, 2008 3:42 AM
It's a ropen! It looks prehistoric!
Posted by: John Conway | February 27, 2008 6:19 AM
That would explain the name...
Just to shoot my mouth off: Looks iguanian.
Posted by: David Marjanović | February 27, 2008 8:46 AM
Clearly iguanian. Not North American. Tropidurine is a good guess, especially given the taste for fruit.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | February 27, 2008 10:04 AM
Tetrapodial reticulated reptilian ermine obviously, but specific species?, sorry I can't give out that sort of detailed information on the internet!
Posted by: DDeden | February 27, 2008 3:25 PM
Looks like a Curly Tailed Lizard...
Leiocephalux spp. or Tropidurus spp....maybe a very nicely patterned Leiocephalux carinatus?
Posted by: TonyB | February 27, 2008 6:09 PM
Is it a Central Netted Lizard (Ctenophorus nuchalis)?
Posted by: macroclemys | February 27, 2008 7:19 PM
In retrospect, that's probably not it...but this picture looks a lot like the second pic of Ermentrude:
http://www.amonline.net.au/wild_kids/images/reptiles/central_netted.jpg
Posted by: macroclemys | February 27, 2008 7:21 PM
It's not nearly as cute as Big Boss, my wonder gecko.
Posted by: Zach Miller | February 27, 2008 9:57 PM
I've got it now. It's a Prey item.
(Sorry Darren, I understand how one feels about pets, but had to say it. It's funny because it's true.)
Posted by: John Scanlon, FCD | February 28, 2008 1:00 AM