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Differences in surface structure (ober- hautchen) of body scales of lacertid lizards involve cell size, shape and surface profile, presence or absence of fine pitting, form of cell margins, and the occurrence of longitudinal ridges and pustular projections. Phylogenetic information indicates that the primitive pattern involved narrow strap-shaped cells, with low posteriorly overlapping edges and relatively smooth surfaces. Deviations from this condition produce a more sculptured surface and have developed many times, although subsequent overt reversals are uncommon. Like variations in scale shape, different patterns of dorsal body microornamentation appear to confer different and conflicting performance advantages. The primitive pattern may reduce friction during locomotion and also enhances dirt shedding, especially in ground-dwelling forms from moist habitats. However, this smooth microornamentation generates shine that may compromise cryptic coloration, especially when scales are large. Many derived features show correlation with such large scales and appear to suppress shine. They occur most frequently in forms from dry habitats or forms that climb in vegetation away from the ground, situations where dirt adhesion is less of a problem. Microornamentation differences involving other parts of the body and other squamate groups tend to corroborate this functional interpretation. Microornamentation features can develop on lineages in different orders and appear to act additively in reducing shine. In some cases different combinations may be optimal solutions in particular environments, but lineage effects, such as limited reversibility and different developmental proclivities, may also be important in their genesis. The fine pits often found on cell surfaces are unconnected with shine reduction, as they are smaller than the wavelengths of most visible light.

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A complete catalogue is provided for the type specimens of lacertid lizards in the herpetological collection of the Zoological Museum, Berlin, as of December, 1993. The collection contains a total of 514 type specimens, representing 63 taxa, of which 42 are currently regarded as valid at the specific or subspecific level. Types representing an additional four taxa appear to have been lost from the collection. The collections are especially rich in African lacertid types and in historically significant specimens collected early in the Nineteenth Century by Pallas, Eversmann, and Hemprich & Ehrenberg. Also present are the type series of many subspecies of Podarcis lilfordi and P. pityusensis described by Eisentraut.

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A phylogenetic-comparative approach was used to assess and refine existing secondary structure models for a frequently studied region of the mitochondrial encoded large subunit (16S) rRNA in two large lizard lineages within the Scincomorpha, namely the Scincidae and the Lacertidae. Potential pairings and mutual information were analyzed to identify site interactions present within each lineage and provide consensus secondary structures. Many of the interactions proposed by previous models were supported, but several refinements were possible. The consensus structures allowed a detailed analysis of rRNA sequence evolution. Phylogenetic trees were inferred from Bayesian analyses of all sites, and the topologies used for maximum likelihood estimation of sequence evolution parameters. Assigning gamma-distributed relative rate categories to all interacting sites that were homologous between lineages revealed substantial differences between helices. In both lineages, sites within helix G2 were mostly conserved, while those within helix E18 evolved rapidly. Clear evidence of substantial site-specific rate variation (covarion-like evolution) was also detected, although this was not strongly associated with specific helices. This study, in conjunction with comparable findings on different, higher-level taxa, supports the ubiquitous nature of site-specific rate variation in this gene and justifies the incorporation of covarion models in phylogenetic inference.

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The anatomy of African lacertid lizards (Lacertidae: Eremiadini) is poorly known, which has hindered a better understanding of their evolutionary relationships. This applies especially to the East African clade, which includes the genera Nucras, Latastia, Philochortus, Pseuderemias and Heliobolus. We present a detailed description of the skull osteology of the genus Heliobolus using X-ray microcomputed tomography and compare its morphology to the above lacertid taxa. Because the genus Heliobolus includes species of doubtful validity and affinities (Heliobolus neumanni and Heliobolus nitidus), we also present a detailed intrageneric comparison and construct a morphological character matrix that we analyse against a phylogenetic backbone derived from previous molecular studies. Heliobolus lugubris and Heliobolus spekii can be well characterised as a monophyletic group on the basis of a short postorbital and a continuously broad posterior margin of the parietal, differing from H. nitidus and other members of the East African clade in an overall low degree of ossification and reduced ventral extension of the frontal bone. Our preliminary phylogenetic analysis suggests that the genus Heliobolus is currently polyphyletic. We propose that the name H. neumanni be officially retracted, because specimens assigned to this species show very different morphologies relative to each other and are placed in different parts of the tree in our analysis. Also, the type specimen is lost and no specimens were collected from the type locality. H. nitidus shows a signal towards the genus Latastia. A definitive, new generic assignment of H. nitidus must await further investigations based on molecular data.

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DNA sequences from parts of the 12S, 16S and cytochrome b mitochondrial genes, which totalled 1049 aligned base pairs, were used to estimate the relationships of 49 species of Lacertidae, including representatives of 19 out of the 23 recognized genera and 23 species of the paraphyletic genus Lacerta. These data were used, together with morphological information, to estimate the relationships within the family. Molecular evidence corroborates the monophyletic status of many genera and species groups originally based on morphology. It indicates that Psammodromus forms a clade with Gallotia, which is the sister taxon of all other lacertids. These comprise three units: the primarily Afrotropical armatured group; the largely Oriental Takydromus; and the west Palaearctic Lacerta and its derivatives, Podarcis and Algyroides. Morphology also supports the first three assemblages, but suggests that they are derived from a paraphyletic Lacerta. Within Lacerta and its allies, DNA sequence analysis corroborates the affinity of some members of each of the subgenera Lacerta s. str. and Timon, and of the L. saxicola group. It also supports the relationship of L. monticola, L. bonnali and L. horvathi, and suggests that the L. parva–L. fraasi clade and L. brandti are not related to Psammodromus–Gallotia, as morphology indicates, but instead are associated respectively with the L. danfordi and L. saxicola groups. DNA sequence data provide additional evidence that the eastern Arabian `Lacerta` jayakari and `L.` cyanura are members of the armatured clade and also sister species. Our analysis supports an origin for present lacertids in west Eurasia. The armatured clade invaded Africa, probably in the mid-Miocene, spreading widely and evolving increasingly xeric-adapted forms, one lineage of which later moved back into the Palaearctic. `Lacerta` jayakari and `L.` cyanura are assigned to Omanosaura, Lutz and Mayer 1986. The name Gallotiinae Cano, Baez, Lopez-Jurado and Ortega, 1984 is available for the Gallotia–Psammodromus clade, Eremiainae Shcherbak 1975 for the armatured clade and Lacertinae for Lacerta, Podarcis and Algyroides. Two new subgenera of Lacerta are proposed here: Caucasilacerta for L. saxicola and its allies, and Parvilacerta for L. parva and L. fraasi.

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The evolutionary diversification of many terrestrial vertebrate groups is strongly linked to climatic events in the Cenozoic, the period from 65 Million years ago to today when modern animals first appeared. I investigated the effects of Cenozoic climate change on the taxonomic and morphological diversification of the Old World lizard family Lacertidae, with particular emphasis on the African radiation. African lacertids exhibit an unusual pattern of diversification, in which their highest species richness occurs in deserts north and south of the equator, despite being spread throughout the continent. This disparity is particularly surprising given that desert lacertids are thought to be evolutionarily younger than their mesic-dwelling relatives, suggesting increased diversification rates in arid habitats. To identify the evolutionary factors underlying this pattern, I use a combination of phylogenetic, morphological and ecological techniques. In Chapter 1, I apply Bayesian methods and fossil-based calibrations to molecular sequence data to construct a time-calibrated phylogeny for Lacertidae. I estimate that the family arose in the early Cenozoic, with the majority of their African radiation occurring in the Eocene and Oligocene. In Chapter 2, I describe changes in lacertid body shape across biomes and substrates, and find widespread morphological convergence in similar habitat types. I suggest that in addition to foraging demands, fluctuating and extreme climatic conditions, largely driven by precipitation and temperature, contribute to morphological convergence across independent arid-dwelling clades. Finally, I test if ancestral transitions in ecology, morphology, and rates of diversification temporally coincide with paleoclimatic events in the Cenozoic. I use High Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography to characterize changes in the skull related to life in arid habitats, and apply maximum likelihood methods to test if the origins of those traits temporally coincide with significant shifts in habitat, diversification rates and climatic changes. My results show that African lacertids experienced three major peaks in diversification, accompanied by the evolution of suites of arid-adapted morphological traits. These changes coincide with climatic shifts in Africa, including the transition from closed forests to open grasslands and savanna in the late Oligocene, prior to the peak temperatures of the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum, and following the formation of the Benguela current leading to hyper-aridity in southern Africa. I conclude that deserts are important centers for reptile evolution, but that expected changes in climate due to global warming may outpace the ability of arid-dwelling species to adapt and persist in the future.

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Background: Although current molecular clock methods offer greater flexibility in modelling evolutionary events, calibration of the clock with dates from the fossil record is still problematic for many groups. Here we implement several new approaches in molecular dating to estimate the evolutionary ages of Lacertidae, an Old World family of lizards with a poor fossil record and uncertain phylogeny. Four different models of rate variation are tested in a new program for Bayesian phylogenetic analysis called TreeTime, based on a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences. We incorporate paleontological uncertainty into divergence estimates by expressing multiple calibration dates as a range of probabilistic distributions. We also test the reliability of our proposed calibrations by exploring effects of individual priors on posterior estimates. Results: According to the most reliable model, as indicated by Bayes factor comparison, modern lacertids arose shortly after the K/T transition and entered Africa about 45 million years ago, with the majority of their African radiation occurring in the Eocene and Oligocene. Our findings indicate much earlier origins for these clades than previously reported, and we discuss our results in light of paleogeographic trends during the Cenozoic. Conclusion: This study represents the first attempt to estimate evolutionary ages of a specific group of reptiles exhibiting uncertain phylogenetic relationships, molecular rate variation and a poor fossil record. Our results emphasize the sensitivity of molecular divergence dates to fossil calibrations, and support the use of combined molecular data sets and multiple, well-spaced dates from the fossil record as minimum node constraints. The bioinformatics program used here, TreeTime, is publicly available, and we recommend its use for molecular dating of taxa faced with similar challenges.

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This review lists Agama smithii Boulenger 1896 as a synonym of Agama agama (Linnaeus 1758), Agama trachypleura Peters 1982 as a synonym of Acanthocercus phillipsii (Boulenger 1895) and describes for the first time Acanthocercus guentherpetersi n. sp. Without more convincing evidence, Chamaeleon ruspolii Boettger 1893 cannot be accepted as specifically distinct from Chamaeleo dilepis Leach 1819, nor Chamaeleo calcaricarens Böhme 1985 from C. africanus Laurenti 1768. Consequently, 101 species of lizard are currently recognised in Ethiopia, of which some 40% appear to be denizens of the Somali-arid zone. This significant proportion is attributable in part to the importance of the Horn of Africa as a centre for reptilian diversification and endemicity, in part to the fact that this lowland fauna was rather extensively sampled during the 1930s, but also to the conspicuous neglect of lizards in other regions of the country. Mountain and forested habitats are widespread in Ethiopia, so it seems extraordinary to record only five saurian species which are believed to be endemic in such environments. The inference that there are many more still to be discovered has important implications for conservation, because montane forest is known to be among the most threatened of Ethiopian biomes and there is clearly an urgent need for its herpetofauna to be more thoroughly researched and documented.

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Aim To map and assess the richness patterns of reptiles (and included groups: amphisbaenians, crocodiles, lizards, snakes and turtles) in Africa, quantify the overlap in species richness of reptiles (and included groups) with the other terrestrial vertebrate classes, investigate the environmental correlates underlying these patterns, and evaluate the role of range size on richness patterns. Location Africa. Methods We assembled a data set of distributions of all African reptile species. We tested the spatial congruence of reptile richness with that of amphibians, birds and mammals. We further tested the relative importance of temperature, precipitation, elevation range and net primary productivity for species richness over two spatial scales (ecoregions and 1° grids). We arranged reptile and vertebrate groups into range-size quartiles in order to evaluate the role of range size in producing richness patterns. Results Reptile, amphibian, bird and mammal richness are largely congruent (r = 0.79–0.86) and respond similarly to environmental variables (mainly productivity and precipitation). Ecoregion size accounts for more variation in the richness of reptiles than in that of other groups. Lizard distributions are distinct with several areas of high species richness where other vertebrate groups (including snakes) are species-poor, especially in arid ecoregions. Habitat heterogeneity is the best predictor of narrow-ranging species, but remains relatively important in explaining lizard richness even for species with large range sizes. Main conclusions Reptile richness varies with similar environmental variables as the other vertebrates in Africa, reflecting the disproportionate influence of snakes on reptile richness, a result of their large ranges. Richness gradients of narrow-ranged vertebrates differ from those of widespread taxa, which may demonstrate different centres of endemism for reptile subclades in Africa. Lizard richness varies mostly with habitat heterogeneity independent of range size, which suggests that the difference in response of lizards is due to their ecological characteristics. These results, over two spatial scales and multiple range-size quartiles, allow us to reliably interpret the influence of environmental variables on patterns of reptile richness and congruency.

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Herpetologically, the remoteness of Kitobo forest in south-eastern Kenya has partly contributed to it remaining virtually un-explored until 2007. Three surveys were conducted in December 2007, December 2009 and April 2010 aimed at generating a comprehensive list of the forest amphibians and reptiles. Using largely timed-species count method, 13 species of amphibians representing eight families and 32 reptiles belonging to 11 families were recorded. Overall species diversity was highest during the 2007 sampling. The richness and abundance of amphibians was highest during the April 2010 sampling period when the amount of rainfall was also highest. The results of species accumulation curves of the three sampling periods did not plateau demonstrating that more species occur in this forest. Pressure on this forest fragment from the adjacent local people is high which in addition to the annual floods threatens its long-term survival. For example the distribution and abundance of some forest associated species such as the tree frogs Leptopelis flavomaculatus and Hyperolius puncticulatus appear to fluctuate with flood events and may decline in future. Considering the forest associated herpetofanua recorded, Kitobo forest is zoogeographically assignable to the East African coastal forest biodiversity hotspot. The documentation of high species richness and diversity in this small forest fragment strongly highlight its biodiversity importance and place it among the most important sites for the conservation of reptiles and amphibians in Kenya.

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Herpetofaunal surveys of the Tana River Primate National Reserve were conducted between December 1998 and January 2002 to generate a species list. Systematic search–and–seize, visual encounter survey and pitfalls with drift fence methods were used. Additional data derived from the collection of the National Museums of Kenya and the literature were also used. A total of 40 species comprising 16 amphibians (all anurans), and 24 reptiles (14 lizards, 1 crocodile, 8 snakes, 1 tortoise) were recorded.

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The family Lacertidae encompasses more than 250 species distributed in the Palearctis, Ethiopis and Orientalis. Lacertids have been subjected in the past to several morphological and molecular studies to establish their phylogeny. However, the problems of convergent adaptation in morphology and of excessively variable molecular markers have hampered the establishment of well supported deeper phylogenetic relationships. Particularly the adaptations to xeric environments have often been used to establish a scenario for the origin and radiation of major lineages within lacertids. Here we present a molecular phylogenetic study based on two nuclear marker genes and representatives of 37 lacertid genera and distinct species groups (as in the case of the collective genus Lacerta). Roughly 1600 bp of the nuclear rag1 and c-mos genes were sequenced and analyzed. While the results provide good support to the hitherto suggested main subfamilies of Gallotiinae (Gallotia and Psammodromus), Eremiainae and Lacertinae [Harris, D.J., Arnold, E.N., Thomas, R.H., 1998. Relationships of lacertid lizards (Reptilia: Lacertidae) estimated from mitochondrial DNA sequences and morphology. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 265, 1939–1948], they also suggest unexpected relationships. In particular, the oriental genus Takydromus, previously considered the sister-group to the three subfamilies, is nested within Lacertinae. Moreover, the genera within the Eremiainae are further divided into two groups, roughly corresponding to their respective geographical distributions in the Ethiopian and the Saharo-Eurasian ranges. The results support an independent origin of adaptations to xeric conditions in different subfamilies. The relationships within the subfamily Lacertinae could not be resolved with the markers used. The species groups of the collective genus Lacerta show a bush-like topology in the inferred Bayesian tree, suggesting rapid radiation. The composition of the subfamilies Eremiainae and Lacertinae as well as their phylogeography are discussed.

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Aim Body size is instrumental in influencing animal physiology, morphology, ecology and evolution, as well as extinction risk. I examine several hypotheses regarding the influence of body size on lizard evolution and extinction risk, assessing whether body size influences, or is influenced by, species richness, herbivory, island dwelling and extinction risk. Location World-wide. Methods I used literature data and measurements of museum and live specimens to estimate lizard body size distributions. Results I obtained body size data for 99% of the world`s lizard species. The body size–frequency distribution is highly modal and right skewed and similar distributions characterize most lizard families and lizard assemblages across biogeographical realms. There is a strong negative correlation between mean body size within families and species richness. Herbivorous lizards are larger than omnivorous and carnivorous ones, and aquatic lizards are larger than non-aquatic species. Diurnal activity is associated with small body size. Insular lizards tend towards both extremes of the size spectrum. Extinction risk increases with body size of species for which risk has been assessed. Main conclusions Small size seems to promote fast diversification of disparate body plans. The absence of mammalian predators allows insular lizards to attain larger body sizes by means of release from predation and allows them to evolve into the top predator niche. Island living also promotes a high frequency of herbivory, which is also associated with large size. Aquatic and nocturnal lizards probably evolve large size because of thermal constraints. The association between large size and high extinction risk, however, probably reflects a bias in the species in which risk has been studied.

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Aim Temperature influences most components of animal ecology and life history – but what kind of temperature? Physiologists usually examine the influence of body temperatures, while biogeographers and macroecologists tend to focus on environmental temperatures. We aim to examine the relationship between these two measures, to determine the factors that affect lizard body temperatures and to test the effect of both temperature measures on lizard life history. Location World-wide. Methods We used a large (861 species) global dataset of lizard body temperatures, and the mean annual temperatures across their geographic ranges to examine the relationships between body and mean annual temperatures.We then examined factors influencing body temperatures, and tested for the influence of both on ecological and life-history traits while accounting for the influence of shared ancestry. Results Body temperatures and mean annual temperatures are uncorrelated. However, accounting for activity time (nocturnal species have low body temperatures), use of space (fossorial and semi-aquatic species are ‘colder’), insularity (mainland species are ‘hotter’) and phylogeny, the two temperatures are positively correlated. High body temperatures are only associated with larger hatchlings and increased rates of biomass production. Annual temperatures are positively correlated with clutch frequency and annual longevity, and negatively correlated with clutch size, age at first reproduction and longevity. Main conclusions Lizards with low body temperatures do not seem to have ‘slower’ life-history attributes than species with high body temperatures. The longer seasons prevalent in warm regions, and physiological processes that operate while lizards are inactive (but warm enough), make environmental temperatures better predictors of lizard life-history variation than body temperatures. This surprisingly greater effect of environmental temperatures on lizard life histories hints that global warming may have a profound influence on lizard ecology and evolution.

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Latastia taylori spec. nov. (fig. 4) Latastia boscai (part) Parker, 1932, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 355 (specs, e-m). Holotype a male, number 1931.7.20.337, in the British Museum, from the Buran Valley, 2500 ft. (10°20`N x 49°E); collected by Capt. R. H. R. Taylor, 17.X.1929. Head flat, depressed, once and three quarters as long as broad, its depth a little less than the distance between the tip of the snout and the anterior corner of the eye, and its length contained 4.25 times in the length from snout to vent. Nostril pierced between four shields; upper nasals forming a suture half the length of the fronto-nasal which is a little broader than long and broader than the internarial space; prefrontals forming a median suture shorter than that between the nasals; frontal not grooved, a little longer than its distance from the rostral, once and two thirds as long as broad; interparietal not quite twice as long as broad, in contact with an occipital half its length; 4 supraoculars, the first divided into two, second and third large and subequal, fourth very small; a row of granules separating the supra- oculars from the 5 supraciliaries. Lower eyelid scaly, translucent. Rostral not entering the nostril ; two superposed post-nasals, the lower in contact with the first and second labials ; anterior loreal half as long as the second; five or six labials anterior to the subocular, which is much narrowed on the lip and separated by two scales from the pos- terior loreal ; lateral edge of the parietal bordered by 3 elongate, narrow scales, of which the anterior is much the longest; anterior margin of the ear bordered by 3 or 4 scales of which the uppermost is the largest. Four pairs of chin-shields, the first 3 in contact and the last the largest; 31 gular scales between the chin-shields and the collar which has about nine scales on its edge, the median very large and the laterals grading into the granules of the neck. Dorsal scales oval, or subhexagonal, flat and smooth, in 39 series across the middle of the body and in 105 series between the occipital and the base of the tail (vertically over the vent) ; twenty-two in a transverse series between the hind limbs. Ven- trals in six longitudinal series, with straight posterior borders, the two median series much narrower than the others; no group of small pec- torals; twenty-five transverse series of ventrals; one very large preanal bordering the vent, preceded by another, but much smaller, shield. A series of enlarged plates beneath the fore-arm; upper tibial scales small, imbricate, keeled; ten or eleven femoral pores on each side; sub- digital lamellae strongly bicarinate 26 beneath the fourth toe. Caudal scales in equal whorls, oblique and strongly keeled above, smooth be- neath. Tip of the fourth toe reaching to midway between the arm and the ear. Pale reddish brown above and on the tail, faintly marbled with grey anteriorly and on the head; flanks anteriorly and side of the neck with very irregular brown and greyish-white vertical marblings. Lower sur- faces uniform white. Length from snout to vent 43 mm. Fore-limb 13 mm. Hind-limb 26 mm. Tail (regenerated in part) 87 mm. The following specimens are paratypes of this species: 1931.7.20.339 9 2000 ft. 10°15`N x 49°E 13.1.1930 1931.7.20.338 9 20 ft. 11°14`N x 49°E 3.XII.1929 1931.7.20.340-342 3 & & 2000 ft. 9°40`N x 49°E [Ex. Field Mus.j 8.II.1930 19317.20.335-336 d 9 3100-3300 ft. 10°13`N x 48°46`E 8.1.1930 This series shows the following variations from the holotype: The head may be once and two thirds as long as broad, and its depth equal to the distance from the snout to the eye; supraciliaries 5 to 7; one or two scales between the posterior loreal and the subocular; 5 or 6 labials anterior to the subocular; dorsals in 36 to 41 series across the middle of the body; ventrals in 23 to 26 transverse series; gular scales 28 to 32; plates in the collar 5 to 7; femoral pores 9 to 12; subdigital lamellae beneath the fourth toes 24 to 27. The fourth toe extends to some point between the shoulder and the middle of the neck. The colour is usually olive, almost uniform, but with traces of lighter marblings anteriorly and on the sides of the neck and anterior part of the flanks, the latter having a tendency towards the formation of verti- cal bars. The subcaudal scales are smooth proximally, but keeled dis- tally and an unregenerated tail is a little more than twice as long as the distance from snout to vent. These specimens were originally believed to be all immature, but a female of 42 mm. from snout to vent is pregnant and the species ap- pears to be consistently smaller than boscai. It is closely allied to the latter but may be distinguished by its broader, natter dorsal scales, the absence of a frontal groove and different colour; it appears to be restricted to the north-eastern districts of Somaliland from the Sol Haud to the coast, an area close to that in which the strongly striped L. boscai burii also occurs (fig. 4).

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Many animals display complex colour patterns that comprise several adjacent, often contrasting colour patches. Combining patches of complementary colours increases the overall conspicuousness of the complex pattern, enhancing signal detection. Therefore, selection for conspicuousness may act not only on the design of single colour patches, but also on their combination. Contrasting long- and short-wavelength colour patches are located on the ventral and lateral surfaces of many lacertid lizards. As the combination of long- and short-wavelength-based colours generates local chromatic contrast, we hypothesized that selection may favour the co-occurrence of lateral and ventral contrasting patches, resulting in complex colour patterns that maximize the overall conspicuousness of the signal. To test this hypothesis we performed a comparative phylogenetic study using a categorical colour classification based on spectral data and descriptive information on lacertid coloration collected from the literature. Our results demonstrate that conspicuous ventral (long wavelength-based) and lateral (short wavelength-based) colour patches co-occur throughout the lacertid phylogeny more often than expected by chance, especially in the subfamily Lacertini. These results suggest that selection promotes the evolution of the complex pattern rather than the acquisition of a single conspicuous colour patch, possibly due to the increased conspicuousness caused by the combination of colours with contrasting spectral properties.

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Uganda is one of the most species rich countries in Africa because of the presenceof several major biomes. However, it is also a country that has lost much of its nat-ural habitat to agriculture. Uganda is a country that has been better surveyed for itsbiodiversity than many African countries, but despite this, there has not been acomprehensive analysis of the critical sites that contribute to biodiversity conserva-tion at a global, as well as at a national level. We here present such an assessmentusing mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and plants as surrogate taxa. We iden-tified 36 terrestrial sites that are of sufficient global importance to qualify as KeyBiodiversity Areas (KBAs), using the Global Standard for the Identification ofKBAs, which complement an additional nine freshwater sites. National red listingof species and ecosystems was used to identify sites of national importance for con-servation. We employ a conservation planning approach using Marxan to identifythe minimum set of sites needed to conserve all the globally and nationally threat-ened species and nationally threatened habitats in Uganda. The findings show thatmost of the remaining natural habitat in Uganda is important for the conservationof globally and nationally threatened species and threatened habitat. Large areas ofirreplaceable habitat occur outside protected areas, although more extensive surveys of these areas would likely reduce the area that is irreplaceable.

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This checklist records the 99 species of lizards known at present from Kenya, and which are divided amongst eight families: Gekkonidae 33 species, Agamidae seven, Chamaeleonidae 17, Scincidae 22, Lacertidae 12, Cordylidae five, Varanidae two, Amphisbaenidae one. Brief data on the distribution of all species is given, with some localities, details of habitat and (in some cases) status of subspecies. Some taxonomic notes on certain problematic species/genera are included, plus a brief discussion of the zoogeography of Kenya`s lizards, and a gazetteer of localities.

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The present paper of N. N. SZCZERBAK was originally published in Russian as `Katalog afrikanskih Jascurok` by the Academy of Sciences, Institute of Zoology, Museum of Zoology, USSR, Kiev (83 pp., 30 maps) in 1975. Lists of synonyms, bibliography, maps and table of contents - all being parts of the original paper - have not been included in this translation which was carried out with the consent of the author by R. GÜNTHER (Berlin) and H. GRILLITSCH (Vienna). The English summary was taken over as provided in the original version. As a SHORT NOTE in this issue of HERPETOZOA subsequent to the translation comments and updated addenda by W. MAYER are provided indicated by [aa* bb* etc.] in the text.

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The aim of this study was to determine if divergence in habitat use among lacertid lizards is paralleled by morphological differentiation. For 35 lacertid species, we measured body, head and limb dimensions. Habitat use was inferred from the literature: ground-dwelling on open terrain, ground-dwelling in vegetated areas, shrub-climbing, tree-climbing, saxicolous (i.e. rock-climbing). Traditional (i.e. non-phylogenetic) statistical analyses suggest morphological differences among species groups with different habitat use. Ground-dwelling species from open habitats tend to have longer femurs, tibiae and humeri (relative to body length) than other groups. Cursorial (i.e. level-running) species have relatively high heads and trunks compared to climbing species. These differences follow biomechanical predictions and it is tempting to consider tham as adaptations to habitat use. However, phylogenetic analyses of the data fail to establish a clear relationship between habitat use and morphology in the data set considered. There is a weak indication that the differences in head and trunk height have evolved as an adaptation to different habitat use, but the differences in relative limb dimensions among species groups with different habitat use vanish. Either adaptation of limb dimensions to habitat use has not occurred in lacertid lizards, or our methods are unable to demonstrate such an adaptation. We show that uncertainties in the topology of the phylogenetic tree used are unlikely to influence the outcome of our study. We also address the fact that habitat use is often similar in different branches of the phylogenetic tree, and the consequences this may have for the power of our statistical analyses.

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The amphibians and reptiles of Kibale National Park in western Uganda were inventoried over an 18-mo period in 1995 and 1996-97. A total of 75 species, including 28 amphibians and 47 reptiles, were collected or observed. Comparison with other equatorial African herpetofaunas confirms that the Kibale fauna is most similar to those of southwest Uganda and eastern Congo-Zaire, both hypothesized Pleistocene forest refugia. Comparison with a West Africa fauna also shows a fair degree of overlap, while almost no overlap was observed between Kibale and the forests of coastal East Africa. This confirms that the Kibale herpetofauna is an extension of the Guinea-Congolean forest faunas. Randomly placed 5 x 5 m plots were used to sample the herpetofauna of the forest leaflitter layer in unlogged forest, logged forest, and a neighboring exotic pine plantation. A total of 18 amphibian and reptile species were captured in the litter, a number similar to that observed in mid-elevation tropical forests in Central America and Southeast Asia. Density at Kibale was much lower than most previous studies. Analysis of the feeding ecology of the most abundant litter species showed that most diurnal litter frogs are active foragers of hard-bodied prey such as ants; sit-and-wait predators of larger soft-bodied prey are curiously absent. Plots sampled under fruiting Ficus natalensis trees showed significantly higher prey densities, but litter amphibians and reptiles did not seem to respond to this increase. Of the physical and biotic factors measured in each plot, seasonal changes in soil moisture were most closely correlated with the patterns of herpetofauna abundance observed in the forest. This is consistent with the fact that Kibale receives less rain than any site where the ecology of the litter herpetofauna has been studied, and that most of the species present in Kibale are believed to have evolved in the wetter forests of eastern Congo-Zaire.