Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus is an iguana from Indonesia and Malaysia
Description
Chamaeleon montium (Buchholz) = Chamaeleo montium Buchholz, 1874 Lophyrus tigrinus (Duméril) = Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus Laurenti, 1768 Draconellus volans (Linné) = Draco volans Linnaeus, 1758 Phrynosoma cornutum (Wiegmann) = Phrynosoma cornutum (Harlan, 1825) Ptychozoon homalocephalum (Kuhl) = Ptychozoon kuhli Stejneger, 1902 Basiliscus americanus (Daudin) = Basiliscus basiliscus (Linnaeus, 1758) Chlamydosaurus kingii (Gray) = Chlamydosaurus kingii Gray, 1827 Moloch horridus (Gray) = Moloch horridus Gray, 1841 English: Cameroon Sailfin Chameleon Chameleon Forest Dragon Flying Dragon Texas Horned Lizard Kuhl's Flying Gecko Common Basilisk Frill-necked Lizard Thorny Devil The 79th lithographic plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904) depicts a variety of lizards, or Lacertilia. In terms of evolutionary relationships, these eight lizards demonstrate the diversity of the suborder Lacertilia, which has been replaced by an array of new suborders and infraorders in recent classifications. Unusual species of chameleon and gonocephalus are at the top; the second row has a flying dragon and a Texas horned lizard; the third row has a flying gecko and a common basilisk; on the bottom row are the aptly named frill-necked lizard and the Thorny Devil. As in many of Haeckel's prints, the colors and spatial composition are more of an aesthetic choice than a reproduction of nature; the lithographer Adolf Glitsch worked directly from Haeckel's sketches rather than from first-hand specimens. (Olaf Breidbach (2004): Visions of Nature: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. Prestel, New York, USA.)
This species lives in a humid tropical environment, in the forests of central Java. It is a species of around 22–25 cm, and quite territorial. The lifestyle is close to that of the chameleons. The females are green, with the males bluer, with yellow touches.
References
Laurenti, 1768 : Specimen medicum, exhibens synopsin reptilium emendatam cum experimentis circa venena et antidota reptilium austracorum, quod authoritate et consensu. Vienna, Joan. Thomae, pp 1–217
