Jacky dragon

Jacky dragon
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Iguania
Family: Agamidae
Genus: Amphibolurus
Species:
A. muricatus
Binomial name
Amphibolurus muricatus
(White, 1790) [2]

The jacky dragon (Amphibolurus muricatus) is a type of lizard native to south-eastern Australia. Other common names include blood-sucker, stonewalker, and tree dragon.[3][4] It was one of the first Australian reptiles to be named by Europeans, originally described by English zoologist George Shaw in Surgeon-General John White's Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales,[5] published in London in 1790.[6] The lizard is well-known for its bright yellow mouth and well-developed vertebral crest, as well as the temperature-dependent sex determination of its offspring.

The Wergaia people of the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria call it nganurganity. In 2017, the star Sigma Canis Majoris was officially named "Unurgunite" (a 19th-century transcription of nganurganity), due to its identification with the jacky dragon in Wergaia traditions.

  1. ^ Melville, J.; Hutchinson, M.; Clemann, N. (2018). "Amphibolurus muricatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T83410038A83453648. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T83410038A83453648.en. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Species Amphibolurus muricatus (White, 1790)". Australian Faunal Directory. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. 9 October 2008.
  3. ^ McPhee, David R. (1959). Some Common Snakes and Lizards of Australia. Sydney: Jacaranda Pocket Guides.
  4. ^ Cogger, Harold G. (1996). Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia (5th ed.). Port Melbourne: Reed. ISBN 0-7301-0088-X.
  5. ^ White, John (1790), Journal of a voyage to New South Wales with sixty-five plates of non-descript animals, birds, lizards, serpents, curious cones of trees and other natural productions, London: J. Debrett, also at Project Gutenberg Australia
  6. ^ Bustard, H. Robert (1970). Australian Lizards. Sydney: Collins. ISBN 0-00-211420-8.