agamid

English

An agamid, Agama atra

Noun

agamid (plural agamids)

1. (zoology) Any of the family Agamidae of lizards, including many dragons.
   • 1992, William E. Dooper, Neil Greenberg, “Reptilian Coloration and Behavior”, in Carl Gans, David Crews, editors, Hormones, Brain, and Behavior, page 398:

     Bright male colors are exhibited primarily during sexual and aggressive displays in iguanids, agamids, chamaeleonids, gekkonids, lacertids, and teiids.

   • 1993, George R. Zug, Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles‎^[1], page 439:

     Agamids and chamaeleonids are sister-groups, presumably with the chameleons diverging early from an agamid stock. Agamids and chameleons uniquely share an acrodont dentition on the dentary and posterior maxillary.

   • 2006, Eric R. Pianka, Laurie J. Vitt, Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity, page 144:

     Whereas Chamaeleonidae and Iguanidae now appear to be monophyletic, Agamidae is not (Macey et al. 1997) because chameleons evolved from agamids, though they have traditionally been excluded (a problem easily resolved by recognizing a clade called Acrodonta, which includes both agamids and chameleons).