Pygopodidae

Taxobox
name = Pygopodidae

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = "Pygopus lepidopodus",from Brehms Tierleben, (1892)
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Reptilia
ordo = Squamata
subordo = Scleroglossa
infraordo = Gekkota
familia = PygopodidaeThe Pygopodidae, or "flap-foots"', are a family of legless lizards related to the geckos. They have unusually long, slender, bodies, giving them a strong resemblance to snakes. Like both snakes and most geckos, they have no eyelids, but unlike snakes, they have external ear-holes and flat, non-forked tonguescite book |editor=Cogger, H.G. & Zweifel, R.G.|author= Bauer, Aaron M.|year=1998|title=Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians|publisher= Academic Press|location=San Diego|pages= 150-152|isbn= 0-12-178560-2] . They are native to Australia and New Guinea.

Flap-foots have no fore-limbs at all, but they do possess vestigial hind limbs in the form of small, flattened, flaps. These may have some role in courtship and defensive behaviour, and may even aid in locomotion through vegetation. Some species are insectivorous burrowing animals, but others are adapted to moving through dense spinifex or other vegetation. Flap-foots lay two eggs in each clutch.

Classification

FAMILY PYGOPODIDAE
* Subfamily Pygopodinae
** Genus Paradelma
** Genus Pygopus
** Genus Delma

* Subfamily Lialisinae
** Tribus Lialisini
*** Genus Lialis
** Tribus Aprasiaini
*** Subtribus Pletholaxini
**** Genus Pletholax
*** Subtribus Aprasiaini
**** Genus Ophidiocephalus
**** Genus Aprasia

References

ee also

* Limbless vertebrates