Added March 1st 2003. Updated 23 October 2022: updated Introduction and genus entries.
This is the only lizard family whose members are restricted to the continent of Africa (excluding Madagascar). The vast majority of the species are furthermore confined to the southern subcontinent, the few exceptions being found further to the northeast as far as Ethiopia and Congo.
The family can be characterised as follows: body scales lack osteoderms (with the important exception of Cordylus) and are arranged in regular girdles: scales on tail are in rings around it and strongly keeled or spiny: body often depressed, rectangular rather than cylindrical in cross-section, with lateral fold: tongue is short, stout and strong with long papillae, with a notch sometimes present. Four limbs are usually present, although these are greatly reduced in Chamaesaura. Platysaurus lays eggs, but the other genera are all ovoviviparous.
Until recently there were considered to be just the four genera, Chamaesaura, Cordylus, Platysaurus and Pseudocordylus, with Chamaesaura forming one subfamily, the Chamaesaurinae, and the other three genera forming the subfamily Cordylinae. More recently Cordylus has been broken up into a number of other genera (Hemicordylus, Karusasaurus, Namazonurus, Ninurta, Ouroborus, and Smaug), although Cordylus remains the most speciate group.
Over the years Cordylus and Platysaurus species have both been kept in captivity with some degree of success. However, the availability of some Cordylus species (including the magnificent sungazers, Cordylus giganteus) has lately become restricted, with desirable species commanding a very high price tag. This is of course not necessarily a bad thing, but it indicates the need for more people to work with captive breeding these animals.
|
Genus |
Common Name |
No. of species |
Location |
Notes |
|
Grass Lizards |
3 |
Southern Africa as far north as Tanzania and Uganda in the east and Congo in the west. |
Snake-like body and very reduced limbs. |
|
|
Cordylus |
Girdled Lizards |
21 |
Southern Africa: 2 in Angola and Ethiopia respectively. |
The only genus in the family with osteoderms. These lizards tend to be on the small side, dwelling among rocks. |
|
Hemicordylus |
|
2 |
|
|
|
Karusasaurus |
|
2 |
|
|
|
Namazonurus |
|
5 |
|
|
|
Ninurta |
|
1 |
|
|
|
Ouroborus |
Sungazer |
1 |
|
|
|
Platysaurus |
Flat Lizards |
15 |
Southern Africa as far north as Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. |
Highly flattened rock-dwelling lizards. |
|
Pseudocordylus |
Crag Lizards |
6 |
Republic of South Africa and Lesotho |
Similar to Cordylus but somewhat larger than most of the latter species. |
|
Smaug |
|
9 |
|
|
Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of South Africa, Bill Branch. Very comprehensive and useful guide to the reptiles of the subcontinent, giving identification details, common and scientific names and a brief summary of known ecology for each species.
Keeping and Breeding Lizards, Mattison, Blandford 1996. A good chapter on the entire Cordylidae family that covers all the lizards, even those not normally seen in captivity.
Echsen [Lizards] Vol 2, Rogner, Ullmer Verlag, 1992. Usually a very good source of information, although it has been pointed out to me by one source that the section on needs to be treated with care, since this seems to have been a "theoretical" guess as to the captive requirements, whereas in reality this particular species is very hard to keep alive.
Not read by this author, but doubtlessly of interest relating to this family:
Girdled Lizards and their relatives: Natural history, Captive Care and Breeding, Jens Reissig, Edition Chimaira, 2014.