Rocky Hideaway

William L. Farr, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Xenosauridae

by Inspector Barry Mins on June 7, 2022

Hey kids, welcome back to our series on the mysteries of created kinds!

This week we are heading south of the border, looking for some lizards.

Two by Tuesday

These lizards are rock-dwelling, living in rock crevices as their preferred home.1 Despite dwelling in the tropics, they prefer lower temperatures than many tropic dwellers.2 This may make sense of why they like to hide in rock crevices. These reptiles grow faster in wet seasons, perhaps because of greater food availability and cooler temperatures during the rainy season.3 Preferred food varied seasonally, with caterpillars preferred in the wet and beetles preferred in the dry.4

Males and females exhibit sexual dimorphism with the females being larger than the males.5 Females give birth to live young, averaging anywhere from two to nearly six young per litter.6 In some species, females reproduce every other year, while in others they reproduce annually.7

Anyone figure it out yet? This week’s kind is the Xenosauridae, the knob-scaled lizard. These lizards are native to central America and like to spend their time avoiding visitors in the rocks.

Try out this fun word search!

Clue

Your clue for the next week is:

Been a while since we did a bird kind, so we are heading to tropical water, looking for a web-footed bird with a broad appetite.

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Have you ever had a question about created kinds but didn’t know who to ask? Have you ever wanted to learn more about your favorite kind? Well, now you can! You can ask me, Inspector Barry Mins, a question! Have your parents help you fill out this form, and you might get your question answered in my column! If you have any questions about created kinds, feel free to send them my way!

Footnotes

  1. J. A. Lemos-Espinal and G. R. Smith. Natural history of Xenosaurus phalaroanthereon (Squamata, Xenosauridae), a knob-scaled lizard from Oaxaca, Mexico. Phyllomedusa, 4, no. 2 (2005), 133–137.
  2. C. Berriozabal-Islas, J. F. M. Rodrigues, A. Ramirez-Bautista, J. L. Becerra-Lopez, A. Nieto-Montes de Oca. Effect of climate change in lizards of the genus Xenosaurus (Xenosauridae) based on projected changes in climatic suitability and climatic niche conservation. Ecology and Evolution, 6:6860-6871.
  3. G. R. Smith, J. A. Lemos-Espinal, R. E. Ballinger. Variation in growth and demography of a knob-scaled lizard (Xenosaurus newmanorum: Xenosauridae) from a seasonal tropical environment in Mexico. bioTropica, 35, no. 2 (2003), 240–249.
  4. J. Garcia-Rico, A. Diaz de la Vega-Perez, G. R. Smith, J. A. Lemos-Espinal, G. A. Woolrich-Pina. Thermal ecology, sexual dimorphism, and diet of Xenosaurus tzacualtipantecus from Hidalgo, Mexico. Western North American Naturalist, 75, no. 2 (2015), 209–217.
  5. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2005.
  6. J. G. Zamora-Abrego, J. J. Zuniga-Vega, and A. Nieto-Montes de Oca. Variation in reproductive traits within the lizard genus Xenosaurus. Journal of Herpetology, 41, no. 4 (2007), 630–637.
  7. R. E. Ballinger, J. A. Lemos-Espinal, and G. R. Smith. Reproduction in females of three species of crevice-dwelling lizards (genus Xenosaurus) from Mexico. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 35, no. 3 (2000), 179–183.