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Zootoca vivipara

(Common Lizard)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Common Lizard, Viviparous Lizard

Common Names in German:

Waldeidechse

Common Names in Spanish:

Lagartija de Turbera

Description

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Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 594 meters (0 to 1,949 feet).[1]

Ecology: This species has been recorded from a wide variety of habitats including grassland, meadows, humid scrubland, hedgerows, open woodland, woodland edges , peat bogs , stream edges, coastal areas (sea cliffs and sand dunes) and rural gardens.

In most areas the female gives birth to between three and 11 fully formed young. In northern Spain, adjacent France, Austria, Italy and Slovenia, the female lays between one and 13 eggs in a single clutch . In the northern portion of the range and at high altitude it is viviparous, in the southern portion it is oviparous .[2].

List of Habitats:

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Lacerta herseyi Austin 1992: 35 • Lacerta viviparaLacerta vivipara var. carniolica WERNER 1897 (Nomen Nudum) • Lacerta vivipara Von Jacquin 1787: 33 • Lacerta vivipara — Boulenger 1887: 23 • Lacerta vivipara — DumÉril & Bibron 1839: 204 • Lacerta vivipara — Engelmann Et Al 1993 • Lacerta vivipara — Stejneger 1907: 251 • Lacerta vivipara — Szczerbak 2003 • Zootica vivpara Stork 1838: 413 • Zootica [sic] vivpara — Stork 1838: 413 • Zootoca vivipara var. nigra Gray 1857: 107 • Zootoca vivipara — Arnold Et Al. 2007 • Zootoca vivipara — Bischoff 2005 • Zootoca vivipara — Mayer & Bischoff 1996 • Zootoca vivipara — Necas Et Al. 1997 • Zootoca vivipara — Wells 1846: 449

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Comment: Zootoca is a subgenus of Lacerta, but has been considered as valid genus too. Note that Lacerta (= Zootoca) vivipara carniolica MAYER et al. 2000 is not identical to Lacerta vivipara var. carniolica WERNER, 1897, which is a nomen nudum . Lacerta vivipara is viviparous throughout most of its range , but oviparous in the extreme southwest portion (Heulin et al., 1989). However, although lizards from the oviparous and viviparous populations are similar in many respects, they produce significant numbers of embryonic malformations when hybridized in the laboratory (Heulin et al., 1989). In Z. vivipara, male mortality and emigration are not higher under male-biased adult sex ratio . Rather, an excess of adult males begets aggression toward adult females, whose survival and fecundity drop, along with their emigration rate (GALLIARD et al. 2005). The description of Lacerta herseyi is certainly not sufficient to establish a new species. His description seems to be based on an aberrant L. vivipara that displays an unusual behavior (leaping lizard). Reptile of the year 2006.

This species is placed in the genus Zootoca, rather than Lacerta, following Mayer and Bischoff (1996). The species contains a number of different lineages , some of which might constitute separate species (see Bea et al. (1990), Surget-Groba et al. (2001, 2002), Mayer and Böhme (2000), and Mayer et al. (2000) for further details).[2].

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Zootoca

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 1 species and subspecies in this genus:

Z. vivipara (Common Lizard)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 27, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Mean = 133.590 meters (438.287 feet), Standard Deviation = 152.770 based on 7,417 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
  2. Agasyan, A., Avci, A., Tuniyev, B., Crnobrnja Isailovic, J., Lymberakis, P., Andrén, Dan Cogalniceanu, C., Wilkinson, J., Ananjeva, N., Üzüm, N., Orlov, N., Podloucky, R., Tuniyev, S., Kaya, U., Böhme, W., Nettmann, H.K., Crnobrnja Isailovic, J., Joger, U., Cheylan, M., Pérez-Mellado, V., Borczyk, B., Sterijovski, B., Westerström, A. & Schmidt, B. 2010. Zootoca vivipara. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. [back]
Last Revised: 7/21/2012