What are the adaptive features of an agama lizard?

What are the adaptive features of an agama lizard?

Agamas are mainly insectivorous, hunting prey by sight and snatching it opportunistically. Their incisor-like front teeth and powerful jaws are adapted to dealing with quite large, hard prey.

How many teeth does an agama lizard have?

The number of these teeth is of the same order in most of the genera, there being from 15 to 20 in each quadrant in adult specimens.

Do agamas lay eggs?

Reproduction. Females are sexually matured at 14–18 months, while males take 2 years. Agama agama tends to reproduce during the wet season, but can also reproduce in areas that receive constant rainfall. Once finished, the female will lay a clutch of 5–7 ellipsoidal eggs that hatch within a period of 8–10 weeks.

Why do lizards hunch their backs?

Many male lizards stand up high on their legs and arch their back to show their territorial dominance to other lizards or to anyone who comes near them. Then they often raise and lower their body as if they are doing push-ups. Females also do push-ups.

Do Agama lizards bite?

Agama can survive for a long period of time in the wild. An amazing fact is that their average lifespan is between 25 and 28 years. The blue-throated agama is not poisonous but beware, as they will still deliver a painful bite. Your warning will be the bright orange mouth lining while they gape their mouth open.

What are the structural adaptation of lizard?

Lizards have a variety of antipredator adaptations, including running and climbing, venom, camouflage, tail autotomy, and reflex bleeding.

What does it mean when a lizard is doing push ups?

These western fence lizards, aka “blue bellies” are doing push-up as a mating display, flashing the blue markings on their bellies to attract the females. Their push-ups are also a territorial display, often to challenge other males if they get too near and fight one another when they enter their territory.

How big does an agama lizard get to be?

The genus Agama is composed of at least 37 species found across Africa, where they are the most common lizard. They can be found in many sizes, from 12.5 to 30 cm (5 in. to 1 ft.) in length and a wide variety of colours.

What kind of lizard is the rainbow agama?

Agama agama. The common agama, red-headed rock agama, or rainbow agama (Agama agama) is a species of lizard from the Agamidae family found in most of sub-Saharan Africa. To clear up historical confusion based on Linnaeus and other authors, Wagner, et al.

What kind of body does an agama Agama have?

A blue body and yellow tail and head characterize the dominant male. A. agama has a large head separated from the body, a long tail, well-developed external ear openings and eyelids. This lizard also has acrodont, heterodont teeth. The lizard possesses both caniniform incisors for grasping and molariform cheekteeth for crushing.

What kind of lizards are in the Agamidae family?

The Agamidae family consists of more than 300 species across six subfamilies. Agamid lizards include not only a large variety of Agamas, but also the very popular Bearded Dragons, Water Dragons and the Uromastyx, or Spiny-tailed lizards. There are also tree lizards, sailfin lizards, butterfly lizards and more.