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Acanthodactylus blanfordi, Acanthodactylus boskianus, Acanthodactylus grandis, Acanthodactylus micropholis, Acanthodactylus nilsoni, Acanthodactylus opheodurus, Acanthodactylus schmidti, Eremias acutirostris, Eremias andersoni, Eremias arguta, Eremias fasciata, Eremias grammica, Eremias intermedia, Eremias lalezharica, Eremias lineolata, Eremias nigrocellata, Eremias nigrolateralis, Eremias persica, Eremias pleskei, Eremias scripta, Eremias strauchi strauchi, Eremias strauchi kopetdaghica, Eremias velox velox, Lacerta brandtii, Lacerta cappadocica urmiana, Lacerta chlorogaster, Lacerta defilippii, Lacerta media media, Lacerta mostoufi, Lacerta praticola praticola, Lacerta princeps princeps, Lacerta princeps kurdistanica. Lacerta raddei raddei, Lacerta raddei vanensis, Lacerta steineri, Lacerta strigata, Lacerta valentini valentini, Lacerta zagrosica, Mesalina brevirostris brevirostris, Mesalina brevirostris fieldi, Mesalina watsonana, Ophisops elegans.

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Relatively little is known about the ecology of lizards in Iran. This paper serves as a brief introduction to five representative biotopes and their associated lizard species living syntopically, based largely on my own observations. The selected localities are found in 1) Masjed Soleyman, foothills of the Zagros Mountains, Khuzestan; 2) Kupal dunes, on the Mesopotamian Plain, Khuzestan; 3) Shah ‘Abbas Caravanserai, Dasht-e Kavir, on the Central Plateau; 4) an abandoned village in Sistan, ruined buildings and loose loess substrate; 5) Hyrcanian Forest, northern slopes of lower Alborz Mountains and the Gorgan region. The biotopes are characterized briefly and the concept of syntopy is discussed.

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Ilya S. Darevsky co-described 70 taxa (three genera, 46 species, 21 subspecies) in 44 publications belonging to five orders, eight families of amphibians and reptiles during his career in herpetology. Of this number, three taxa are fossil and 57 taxa are currently considered as valid. By the regions where new taxa were discovered Southeast Asia and Western Asia (includes Caucasus and Asia Minor) dominates. The largest number of descriptions was published in the Russian Journal of Herpetology.

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Eremias andersoni is a new species from Descht-i-Kevir desert (Iran). It differs from the closely related psammophile species E. fasciata, E. lineolata and E. scripta by the absence of uninterrupted rows of granules between frontal and frontoparietal shield.

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Iran contains 36 named endemic reptile species in 17 genera and seven families. The most endemic and speciose family is the Gekkonidae, followed by the Lacertidae. These two families collectively dominate with 22 species (or 60.1%) of the total endemic herpetofauna. Twenty one endemics are known only from a single location or restricted area within a single physiographic region. An analysis of endemicity is given in terms of systematics and distribution.

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Little is known about altitudinal distribution of lizards in Iran. In the present study we studied distribution pattern of members of family Lacertidae along the eleveatinal gradient in Iran. To determine environmental drivers of distribution pattern of 48 lizard species, all known valid members of family Lacertidae, along elevational gradient in Iran. Firstly, we classified Iran digital elevation model (DEM) based on 100m intervals, that resulted in 56 altitudinal bands and number of species in each band was recorded. Secondly, we extracted mean value of following variables; altitude, slop, area, solar radiation index (SRI), normalized differences vegetation index (NDVI), annual precipitation, precipitation of wettest month, precipitation of driest month precipitation, precipitation of wettest quarter, precipitation of driest quarter, and precipitation of warmest quarter, and using VIF measure correlated variables were removed. Finally, we performed a multiple regression and found that area and precipitation of warmest quarter are the most important drivers of distribution pattern of family Lacertidae along elevational gradient in Iran. General distribution pattern of family Lacertidae was unimodal and maximum number of species living from 1475 m to 1675 m.

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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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The etymology of the reptiles, especially the lizards of Iran has not been completely presented in other published works. Iran is a very active geographic area for any animals, and more especially for lizards, due to its wide range deserts and ecology. We have attempted to ascertain, as much as possible, the construction of the Latin binomials of all Iranian lizard species. We believe that a review of these names is instructive, not only in codifying many aspects of the biology of the lizards, but in presenting a historical overview of collectors and taxonomic work in Iran and Middle East region. We have listed all recorded lizards of Iran according to the order of the scientific names in the book of Anderson, The Lizards of Iran. All lizard species and types have been grouped under their proper Families, and then they have been alphabetically ordered based on their scientific binominal nomenclature. We also examined numerous published works in addition to those included in the original papers presenting each binomial.

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Seventeen species of reptiles and one species of amphibians have so far been reported from the Kavir Protected Region in the Kavir desert of Iran. These are Agamura per- sica, Agama a. agilis, Phrynocephalus scutellatus, Phrynocephalus maculatus, Varanus griseus caspius, Eremias andersoni, Eremias persica, Mesalina guttulata watsonana, Eumeces schneiderii princeps, Ophiomorus nuchalis, Coluber k. karelini, Coluber rho- dorhachis ladacensis, Psammophis schokari, Spalerosophis diadema schirazianus, Echis carinatus, Pseudocerastes p. persicus and Bufo kavirensis. A species of Uromastyx, probably U. asmussi, is also registrated from the area. Agama b. blanfordi, Phryno- cephalus helioscopus persicus and Ophisops e. elegans are reported from areas south and west of the Kavir Protected Region but might as weil occur inside it. Some taxo- nomic questions are discussed and data concerning habits and distribution are presented.

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The global struggle to conserve as many species as possible with limited resources requires an improvement of our knowledge on the distribution of biodiversity. In Iran, the state of knowledge is poor for most groups of organisms, except few vertebrate groups and vascular plants. Reptiles are one of the best known, most diverse vertebrate groups in Iran, with a high rate of endemism (ca. 29%), but distribution patterns and related environmental drivers remain poorly understood. In the present study, based on a large publicly available dataset, we use general additive modelling (GAM) to identify explanatory variables for species richness of reptiles in Iran. Results indicate heterogeneity parameters (range +entropy) as the variables with the highest explanatory values. Based on the grid cells of the predicted environmental richness, using hotspot analysis, we suggest seven hotspots of reptile diversity (HRDs) across the country. Our results corroborate the previously recognized HRDs and detect three additional ones, located alongside the major mountain ranges around the central deserts plateau, particularly in the Zagros Mountains. Four of the largest HRDs (ca. 90%) situate within the Irano-Anatolian and Caucasus global biodiversity hotspot. In addition, our results reveal a large gap between identified HRDs and the current network of protected areas (PAs) in the country. While three of the detected HRDs in this study are partially touched (ca. 18%) by the PA network, overall, these areas are only covered by less than 10%. Therefore, the effectiveness of the current PAs for the protection of the reptile diversity of Iran is questionable.

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An updated checklist of the herpetofauna of Iran is presented based on records of amphibian and reptile species whose presence has been confirmed in Iran as a result of extensive field expeditions, examination of herpetological collections, literature review, and personal communications from researchers. The herpetofauna of Iran consists of 13 species and five subspecies of frogs and toads belonging to five genera and four families, eight species of salamanders belonging to four genera and two families, nine species and six subspecies of turtles, terrapins and tortoises belonging to nine genera and six families, one species of crocodile, one species of amphisbaenian, more than 125 species of lizards belonging to 36 genera and eight families as well as 79 species of snakes belonging to 37 genera and six families

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We present an annotated checklist for a total 241 reptiles and 22 amphibians including 5 frogs, 9 toads, 7 newts and salamanders, 1 crocodile, 1 worm lizard, 148 lizards, 79 snakes and 12 turtles and tortoises, includes the most scientific literature up to August 2014 and also based on several field surveys conducted in different Provinces of Iran from 2009 to 2014. We present an up-to-dated checklist of reptiles and amphibians in Iran. We provide a comprehensive listing of taxonomy, names, distribution and conservation status of all amphibians and reptiles of Iran. This checklist includes all recognized named taxa, English names for classes, orders, families, species, subspecies along with Persian names for species, including indication of native and introduced species. For the first time we report two non-native introduced reptiles from natural habitats of Iran. Of the total 22 species of amphibians in Iran, 6 (27.2%) are endemic and of the total 241 species of reptiles, 55 (22.8%) are endemic. Of the 22 amphibians species in Iran, 3 (13%) are Critically Endangered, 2 (9%) are Vulnerable and of the 241 reptile species 3 (1.2%) are Critically Endangered, 4 (1.6%) are Endangered and 10 (4.1%) are Vulnerable. Accordingly, this paper combines significant aspects of taxonomy, common names, conservation status and distribution of the Iranian herpetofauna.

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This book shows a comprehensive picture of the reptiles, excluding snakes, living in Europe, North Africa, Middle and Near East and Central Asia. The bulk of the book is an annotated checklist and a distributional atlas of approx 500 species of lizards, crocodiles, turtles and terrapins, and amphisbaenians, living in the Western Palearctic. Information on distribution, subspecies, chorotype and main references are provided for each species, as well as 226 colour maps showing the global distribution of the species on a grid of one degree. For each species map the bibliographic and original sources (more than 850 sources are listed) are indicated. A further 83 maps show the distribution of all genera and main species groups of Palearctic reptiles. Beside the checklist and the atlas, in some additional chapters the following arguments are treated: Materials and methods; status of knowledge on the Palearctic fauna; composition of the Western Palearctic reptile fauna (including a statement on biodiversity and species richness); descriptive biogeography (including a discussion on the Palearctic region boundaries based on reptile distribution and the herpeto-geographic sectors of the Western Palearctic); conservation status. A list of more than 730 references quoted in the text and high quality colour plates including photos of the most of the supraspecific taxa living in the study area completes the book.

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We present a comprehensive summary of the distribution of the lizards of Iran accompanied by an annotated checklist. The updated maps of distribution of all 146 species of 41 genera of 11 families are based on all available bibliographic records, catalogues of museum collections and our own field observations. The final dataset used for the distribution maps contains 8525 georeferenced records and cover 41% of the country when plotted on a grid of 0.25° × 0.25° resolution. The dataset is publicly accessible through GBIF portal (http://www.gbif.org/dataset/7db4f705-61ae-4c6e-9de2-06674e7d46b2). Following the latest biogeographic division of the country, ~53% of the species (76 species) inhabit the Iranian Province, ~41% (60 species) the Western Asian mountain transition zone, ~9% (13 species) the Turanian Province, and ~18% (27 species) the Arabian Province. In addition, ~2% (3 species) reach Iran from the Indo-Malay biogeographic region and ~2% (3 species) are believed to have been introduced to Iran by humans. Endemic species (46) represent ~32% of the known species diversity. The most species-rich family of lizards in Iran is Lacertidae with 47 species, followed by Gekkonidae (41), Agamidae (18), Scincidae (15), Phyllodactylidae (10), Sphaerodactylidae (4), Eublepharidae and Uromastycidae (3), Anguidae and Varanidae (2), and Trogonophidae with one representative.