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Common lizard colouration: |
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Stu. Member Joined: 10 Sep 2003 No. of posts: 1  View other posts by Stu. |
Posted: 10 Sep 2003 I have been reading your discussions on common lizard colouration with great interest, but am now a little confused and have a query of my own. Whilst out in the sunshine of SE Essex last week I was fortunate enough to come across three basking lizards. I am fairly sure that two of them were viviparous lizards, but the third one had a very strong green colouration (but not really a bright green). I only caught a brief look at it as it scuttled under some nearby cover, so I was unable to determine the shape of its head. Could it have been a common lizard with this colouration? Or might it have been a sand lizard? (Not a known area for sand lizards). Stu. |
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David Bird Forum Specialist Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 515  View other posts by David Bird |
Posted: 10 Sep 2003 Common Lizards can be green in colour in some specimens, the ones I have seen have a blue green irridescence rather than a pigment in the skin. Some people do say they have seen specimens that do have a green pigment in areas where Sand Lizards do not occur and they describe the size and shape of a Common Lizard but these have all been people whose reliability on lizard identification has not been known to me personally. British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker. |
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GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090  View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 10 Sep 2003 This is a picture I put up the other day, I've seen adults of a similar colour in the area too, as you say David, it's more of an iridescent sheen than the base colour, but it was picked up by the camera in this shot - though the base colour isn't normal either, much lighter than the more common dark brown juveniles in the area.
Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
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j gaughan Senior Member Joined: 04 May 2003 No. of posts: 57 View other posts by j gaughan |
Posted: 07 Dec 2003 Gemma, this may be a 'wrong' column in this thread / thread in this column _i don't know how it works. I can't wait until someone takes a serious look at 'colour variation' in Viviparous Lizards; and I'll say no more on it until i've re-checked my old 'Dartmoor site' next summer. John |
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Moderator Admin Group Joined: 14 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 21 View other posts by Moderator |
Posted: 07 Dec 2003 John I think Stu put the question here because he thought he may have seen a Sand Lizard, though the thread seems to have now moved onto vivi lizard variation, but that's discussion for you! Perhaps we should start a new thread on the subject in the Common Lizard forum 
Moderator |
- Common lizard colouration |
