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Has anyone here looked into the Latin roots of the four Acanthosaura (mountain horned dragon) species? I'm curious as to what they mean... But bear with me, I'm not an expert at interpreting Latin.

Acanthosaura itself I'm quite certain means something close to "spined lizard," since acantha means spine or spinous process of a vertebra, and saura means lizard.

A. armata I'm leaning towards "armored" or "armed MHD" as armata appears close to arma, which would be defensive arms, weapons or armor.

A. capra I'm stumped on, as the only meaning I can find for capra is a "she-goat." Does this lizard look goat-like? Not really... Any ideas?

A. crucigera, cruci- I'm thinking has something to do with the cross, some photos I've found show a cross-like marking on the dorsal aspect of this species' neck, but their colour and pattern is apparently quite variable so nothing solid. Does anyone know what the suffix -gera means?

A. lepidogaster seems like "elegant MHD," as lepidus could mean charming, witty, elegant or pleasant. Anyone know what -gaster means?

I've also posted this on the Taxonomy forum.

Christina Miller
Herptiles.net

You are right.

A. capra is named after its prominent horns and since it has only two of them and not four like the other Acanthosaura,to the describer it obviously looked goat like.
Crucigera literally means cross bearer which in fact refers to the dark cross at the neck.

lepidus means beautiful, right. But lepis means scale and since a diagnostic treat for A. lepidogaster lies in the structure of its belly scales (Gaster means vent, belly)it was given that name.

Ci@o

Ingo.

n/t

See what happens when I don't pop in! This was a good read, thanks for the interesting information.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

Thanks to Ingo and some other kind posters on the Taxonomy forum, I think I have some names planted.

A. armata is the armed mountain horned dragon.

A. capra is the two-horned mountain horned dragon (as "capra" refers to goat, because this species has two horns, not four like the other species).

A. crucigera is the cross-bearing mountain horned dragon.

A. lepidogaster is the rough-bellied mountain horned dragon (From HaroldD on the Taxo forum: "lepidogaster" is not Latin, but Greek. "gaster" is a term used in many, many herp names. It means "belly". "lepidus" is Greek for rocky, or by extension "hard". So the name probably means "hard (or rough) bellied spiny lizard.).

I'm actually not very inclined to use common names over the Latin/scientific ones, as there can be so much variation and confusion. But I think this was an interesting little exercise, and I think some dragon owner's curiosity for more specific common names (which seems like an oxymoron to me, lol) can be satisfied.

Christina
www.herptiles.net

Hm,

I am not sure.
I always assumed that lepis in lepidogaster was referring to scale, since this is the onnly Acanthosaura with keeled belly scales and that lepidogaster should just indicate that a look at the belly scales would be emough to identify this species.

Ci@o

Ingo

It does seem like a bit of a stretch, but I guess a name paying respects to their shorter horns and nuchal/dorsal crests could also be used. "Rough-bellied" seems to equate with keeled-belly scales, though.

Christina