Cristidorsa, Wang & Che & Lin & Deepak & Aniruddha & Jiang & Jin & Chen & Siler, 2019

CRISTIDORSA View in CoL View at ENA

WANG, DEEPAK, DATTA-ROY, LIN, JIANG, CHE & SILER GEN. NOV.

Etymology: The Latin term ‘ Cristidorsa ’ means ‘ridged dorsum’, which describes the distinct, characteristic ridges on the dorsal surface of the body in the new genus. The generic name is feminine and it consists of two parts, namely ‘ Cristi -’ (meaning ‘ridged’) and ‘- dorsa ’ (meaning ‘dorsum’). We suggest the English common name as ‘Ridged Dragons’ and the Chinese name as ‘棱背蜥’ (pronounced as ‘Leng-Bei-Shi’).

Type species: Cristidorsa otai ( Mahony, 2009) .

Diagnosis: Lizards of the genus ‘ Cristidorsa ’ differ from other closely related Draconinae genera by having the following morphological characteristics: (1) head robust and relatively wide, HW/HL mostly>70%; (2) scales of lateral head keeled; (3) nuchal and dorsal crest feeble, CL/HL<5%; (4) post-occipital and post-orbital spines absent; (5) gular scales mostly homogeneous in size; (6) size of scales on lateral jaw subequal in size across gular region; (7) single pair of distinctively enlarged conical scales present on nape above shoulder, one scale on each side of vertebral crest; (8) dorsal scale significantly heterogeneous in sizes and shapes; (9) distinct, dorsolateral rows of enlarged, keeled scales present on dorsum; and (10) V-shaped ridges present along dorsal midline, formed by enlarged, keeled scales.

Phylogenetic definition: We define Cristidorsa using the maximum crown-clade definition, which includes species that share a more recent common ancestor with Cristidorsa otai than with Salea horsfieldii .

Included species: Based on our phylogenetic results, we assign C. otai and C. planidorsata to the genus Cristidorsa .

Geographic distribution: Members of the genus Cristidorsa are distributed on the south-east extreme of the Himalayan foothills, including north-east India ( C. otai and C. planidorsata ), and the north-west part of Myanmar [ C. otai ; see discussion on taxonomic status of the Myanmar population below ( Fig. 5)].