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| Malagasy Club-tailed Iguanas or Cuvier's Madagascar Swift, Oplurus cuvieri Gray, 1831. Photographs of captives specimens. The species inhabits northwest Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. The Comoro Island population is regarded to be a separate subspecies (O. p. comoroensis). This species is omnivorous, feeding on both insects and vegetation in captivity. |
Two genera (Chalarodon and Oplurus) and seven species compose this family that is restricted to Madagascar with one species (O. cuvieri) that has dispersed to Grand Comoro Island. They inhabit dry forested areas, avoiding the rainforests, although one species O. quadrimaculatus inhabits humid areas compared to other taxa . Four species of Oplurus are rock dwellers and form a clade, the other two species are tree dwellers and form a clade. Chalarodon is monotypic and lives in areas with loose, sandy soil. All species tend to be insectivorous, but at least some are known to eat vegetation on occasion. Mori and Randriamahazo (2002) found that O. cuvieri is an ambush predator. Members of this family are oviparous, and young hatch at the start of the dry season. Iguania tend to be Western Hemisphere lizards, and Blanc (1982. pages 38-45, In: Iguanas of the World, Noyes Publications) has proposed two hypotheses to explain their presence in Madagascar (1) the breakup of Gondwanaland lead the pre-iguania to evolve into the true iguanids of the New World or (2) there was a secondary invasion of Madagascar after Gondwanaland had split up. For more information see the following articles: Titus, T. A. and D. R. Frost, 1996. Molecular homology assessment and phylogeny in the lizard family Opluridae (Squamata: Iguania). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 6:49-62. A Mori, H. J. A. R Randriamahazo (2002) Foraging mode of a Madagascan iguanian lizard, Oplurus cuvieri cuvieri African Journal of Ecology 40 (1), 61–64. |