Van Dam's girdled lizard (Smaug vandami) is a species of lizard in the family Cordylidae. The species is endemic to South Africa.
Geographic range The type locality of S. vandami is Gravelotte, Limpopo, South Africa.
Habitat The preferred natural habitats of S. vandami are grassland and savanna.
Description A large lizard, S. vandami may attain a snout-vent length (SVL) of . Plate 70. It has a triangular shaped head, and spiny dorsal scales. The predominant colour is dark brown with fragmented yellow rings. Website on girdled lizards kept in captivity.
Behaviour S. vandami is largely solitary and hides in cracks in rocks.
Reproduction S. vandami is ovoviviparous. From two to six young are born alive in summer.Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. . (Cordylus vandami, p. 197 + Plate 70).
Etymology The species is named for the collector of the type specimens, Gerhardus Petrus Frederick van Dam (died 1927), who was a South African herpetologist. www.reptile-database.org. Retrieved 23 July 2015.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Cordylus vandami, p. 271).
Common names Other common names for S. vandami include the Afrikaans name ouvolk, meaning "old folk".
References
Further reading FitzSimons V (1930). "Descriptions of New South African Reptilia and Batrachia, with Distribution Records of Allied Species in the Transvaal Museum Collection". Annals of the Transvaal Museum 14 (1): 20–48. (Zonurus vandami, new species, pp. 25–27, Figures 6–7). Loveridge A (1944). "Revision of the African Lizards of the Family Cordylidae". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College 95 (1): 1–118. (Cordylus warreni vandami, new combination, pp. 23–24). Reissig J (2014). Girdled Lizards and their relatives: Natural History, Captive Care and Breeding. Frankfurt am Main: Edition Chimaira. 249 pp. . Stanley EL, Bates MF (2014). "Here be dragons: a phylogenetic and biogeographical study of the Smaug warreni species complex (Squamata: Cordylidae) in southern Africa". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 172 (4): 892–909. Stanley EL, Bauer AM, Jackman TR, Branch WR, Mouton PLFN (2011). "Between a rock and a hard polytomy: Rapid radiation in the rupicolous girdled lizards (Squamata: Cordylidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 58 (1): 53–70. (Smaug vandami, new combination).
External links Photographs