AROD > Reptiles / Squamata / Agamidae / Hypsilurus
Rainforest dragons
Hypsilurus
- Peters, 1867
| Pronunciation: | HIP-sill-YOUR-uss | |||||||||||||||
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| Etymology: | 'upsilon-tail'. Upsilon ('ϒ') is the Greek letter on which the English uppercase 'Y' is based. | |||||||||||||||
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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 An unpublished PhD thesis (Moody 1980) placed the Australian species in Hypsilurus.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 studies12 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