AROD > Reptiles / Squamata / Agamidae / Hypsilurus
Rainforest dragons
Hypsilurus
- Peters, 1867
Pronunciation: | HIP-sill-YOUR-uss | |||||||||||||||
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Etymology: | 'upsilon-tail'. Upsilon ('Ï’') is the Greek letter on which the English uppercase 'Y' is based. | |||||||||||||||
Taxonomic notes: |
Members of this genus used to be placed in Gonocephalus. An unpublished PhD thesis (Moody 1980) placed the Australian species in Hypsilurus. This action has been supported by other studies1 , 2 and by many books, but has never officially been published. |
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Notes: | The Australian members of this genus are Gondwanan relicts of a group of animals found in parts of Australasia. | |||||||||||||||
Statistics: |
Reproductive modes:
Oviparous - 2 out of 2 Australian species Size range: Smallest Australian species: rainforest dragon (Hypsilurus spinipes) at 11 cm Longest Australian species: Boyd's forest dragon (Hypsilurus boydii) at 15 cm |
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Number of Australian species: | 2 | |||||||||||||||
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- Baverstock, PR & Donnellan, SC (1990). Molecular evolution in Australian dragons and skinks: a progress report. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 29:323-331. - search web for this article
- Ota, H.; Matsui, M.; Hikida, T.; & Mori, A. (1992). Extreme karyotypic divergence between species of the genus Gonocephalus (Reptilia: Squamata: Agamidae) from Borneo and Australia. Herpetologica, 48(1):120-124. - search web for this article