The Common Flat Lizard (Platysaurus intermedius) is a species of lizard in the Cordylidae family. This lizard has nine subspecies, all living in southern Africa.
Description
The females and juveniles of all subspecies of Platysaurus intermedius have black scales, with white stripes on the back. The bellies are brown, but the outer edge the belly is white. Adult males have different colorations for each subspecies.
Geography
Common Flat Lizards are the most widely distributed and common.These lizards live under exfoliating, or weathering, rocks. The preferred types of rock of this lizard are granite, sandstone, and quartzite. These lizards can be found in moderately moist savannahs, as well as rock outcrops. Its ranges throughout Zimbabwe, North Province, Mpumalanga, southern Malawi, eastern Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, and northern KwaZulu-Natal. This area includes the Kalahari desert, and several large river drainage systems.
Habits
Common Flat Lizards can be found in very large colonies. One example is Rhodes Grade, in Matopos, Zimbabwe. Two oval-shaped eggs are laid between November and December in a communal egg site for the colony. These communal egg sites are in a warmed crack in a rock. The hatchlings, which are 30-35 mm long, hatch in late December or January.
Common Flat Lizards can live about three years in captivity.
Common Flat Lizards have shown in tests that temperature does not effect their digestion efficiency.
P. i. intermedius is 85-90 mm long, and was the first subspecies of Platysaurus intermedius to be found. The heads and bodies are green or brown, along with nearly nonexistent spots and stripes. The tail, like many other lizards in the Platysaurus genus, is either red or yellow. The throat and the belly are blue, as many other males in this species.
No comments:
Post a Comment