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Publications (38)
Four species of the genus Panaspis-P. cabindae, P. wahlbergii, P. maculicollis and P. mocamedensis-are currently known from Angola. The analysis of recently collected specimens from Serra da Neve Inselberg, an isolated mountain located in northern Na-mibe Province, revealed unexpected taxonomic diversity in the group. Using an integrative taxonomy...
Ansorge’s Rock Skink Trachylepis ansorgii (Boulenger, 1907) is an Angolan taxon, the taxonomic distinctiveness and geographic distribution of which are poorly understood. It is closely related to the widespread Western Rock Skink T. sulcata (Peters, 1867) from Namibia and South Africa, but heretofore a lack of samples has prevented a comprehensive...
Approximately 238 species of reptiles are found in the highlands and escarpments of Angola and Namibia (HEAN). Of the 430 species present in the two countries in total, 46 are strictly endemic (or nearly so) to the HEAN and another 16 have extensive portions of their ranges in these areas. Geckos constitute the majority of HEAN endemics with 32 spe...
During a recent survey of the Serra da Neve inselberg in southwestern Angola, a population of legless skinks of the genus Acontias was found. Only three species of this genus have been recorded for the country so far – A. occidentalis, A. kgalagadi and A. jappi. Using an integrative approach and combining molecular and morphological data we found t...
Chioninia coctei (formerly Macroscincus coctei) was one of the largest skinks to have ever lived. In the course of a little more than 100 years it was discovered, ignored, described, forgotten, rediscovered, became a popular zoo and terrarium animal, and became extinct in the wild, with the last living captives straggling into the early 20th centur...
During the Eocene, world climate experienced rapid and intense global warming, reaching a peak during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), 56 my ago. The warmest global climate of the past 66 my occurred during the early Eocene epoch (about 56 to 48 mya) when megathermal floral elements, including palms, reached Antarctica. The increase in...
Tropidonotus nicobarensis Sclater, 1891 is an enigmatic snake currently referred to the natricine genus Hebius Thompson, 1913. No specimens have been recorded since the original discovery of the name-bearing type in the late 19th century, which was allegedly collected on Kamorta Island in India’s Nicobar Archipelago. Recently, a second observation...
Dickerson’s Forest Gecko Ancylodactylus dickersonae (Squamata: Gekkonidae) has been assessed as Least Concern because this species as presently understood has a wide distribution in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is possibly also present in Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. It occurs in a number of protected ar...
This chapter reviews current knowledge on the diversity of terrestrial reptiles in the Gulf of Guinea oceanic islands and provides a brief history of research on this group of animals. A total of 29 species of terrestrial reptiles (representing 14 genera and seven families) are resident on the Gulf of Guinea oceanic islands, of which 22 species are...
The genus Heliobolus comprises four recognized species, all endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Of these, only Heliobolus lugubrisoccurs in southern Africa, its distribution extending from Angola in the west to Mozambique in the east and reaching as far south as parts of northern South Africa. Like many of the reptile species that occur in southern Afri...
This third report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee provides comments and proposals regarding the concepts, terminology and Rules used to establish the nomenclatural availability of publications, whatever their support and mode of distribution (on paper, on discs or electronic).
This second report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a careful analysis of the concept of nomenclatural availability in zoological nomenclature, a concept often misunderstood and misused in recent taxonomic publications. It provides a definition of this expression and establishes a new nomenclatural principle, the Principle...
We describe a new species of the agamid genus Acanthocercus from Namibia and Angola, based on morphological and molecular evidence. The phylogenetic analysis of a fragment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene suggests that the new species is closely related to the other taxa from southern Africa and is distinct from species from eastern and northeast...
The herpetological collections of the Museu do Dundo in Lunda Norte Province, northeast Angola, are among the most important in southern Africa and represent one of the largest collections of Angolan amphibians and reptiles in the world. The collection comprises more than 2,750 preserved specimens, including type specimens of taxa described by Raym...
The New Zealand diplodactylid gecko genus Toropuku is currently monotypic, but the sole member of the genus, T. stephensi, is distributed in two disjunct, geographically distant regions of New Zealand – the islands of Cook Strait (which includes the type locality, Stephens Island), between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, and the Coromandel P...
The reptile fauna of Tinhosa Grande islet, Gulf of Guinea, comprises an endemic skink, Trachylepis adamastor, and an unidentified species of gecko of the genus Hemidactylus. Until recently, no molecular data were available for either species, impeding their phylogenetic placement. However, due to several synapomorphic characters, it was suggested t...
Recent molecular phylogenetic work has found that Breviceps Merrem, 1820 comprises two major clades, one of which, the B. mossambicus group, is widely distributed across southern sub-Saharan Africa. This group is notable for harboring abundant cryptic diversity. Of the four most recently described Breviceps species, three are members of this group,...
A correction to the recent revision of the genus Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820 from Angola is presented. The previous revision assigned some historical specimens to H. bayonii and H. nzingae, with one specimen even being considered a paratype of the latter taxon. A review of the morphological data of all of the specimens used in the previous study fo...
At present the genus Lygodactylus is represented by three species in Angola confirmed by voucher specimens-L. angolensis, L. bradfieldi, and L. capensis-and two others believed to be present, but without specimens with precise localities, L. chobiensis and L. lawrencei. We present a detailed taxonomic revision of the group in Angola and describe th...
Two species of Bush Vipers, genus Atheris Cope, 1862, have been reported for the continental island of Bioko, Gulf of Guinea-Atheris squamigera and a putatively undescribed species, morphologically similar to Atheris chlorechis. The latter was only known from one specimen collected in the early 1900s and its taxonomic identity has never been fully...
The Angolan Adder, Bitis heraldica (Bocage, 1889), is endemic to the Angolan central plateau and is one of the most poorly known and rarely observed species of African snakes. The phylogenetic placement of B. heraldica within the four subgenera of the genus Bitis (Bitis, Macrocerastes, Calechidna, Keniabitis) has been problematic. The few recent ta...
The genus Panaspis in Angola is represented by four species, most of them part of taxonomically and nomenclaturally challenging species-complexes. We present a taxonomic revision of the group in the region and describe one new species, Panaspis mocamedensis sp. nov., endemic to the lowland areas of the Namibe province, southwestern Angola. Phylogen...
The genus Hemidactylus in Angola is represented by six species, all of them part of taxonomically and nomenclaturally challenging species complexes. We present a detailed taxonomic revision of the group in the region and describe two new species, Hemidactylus nzingae sp. nov. and Hemidactylus paivae sp. nov., both occuring in and potentially endemi...
Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are relatively unknown in terms of their herpetological diversity. Based on specimens collected in the Congolese region of the Katanga and the northeast of Angola during the first decades of the twentieth century, de Witte and Laurent independently suggested, based on morphological and coloration diff...
A recent molecular revision of the snake-eyed skinks of the genus Panaspis Cope, 1868 uncovered extensive cryptic diversity within the P. wahlbergi (Smith, 1849) and P. maculicollis Jacobsen & Broadley, 2000 species complexes. We here describe an unnamed central and northern Namibian lineage of the P. maculicollis group as a new species. We base th...
The present work constitutes an historical atlas of all known bibliographic records of amphibians and reptiles of Angola. It is the first attempt to compile in a single document all the records scattered through hundreds of publications, published from the first half of the nineteenth century to the present day, and provide a critical taxonomic rev...
The geckos in the genus Strophurus (Diplodactylidae) are one of only two squamate lineages with specialized caudal defensive glands. Many species in this genus also have distinctive caudal ornamentation combined with bright and/or contrasting colour pattern elements on the iris, tail and especially the lining of the mouth that are hypothesized to b...