Distribution Pattern of African Reptiles

The distribution patterns of African reptiles are complex and include refugial areas as well as distribution corridors and recently colonized areas. In the first part of the talk I will present herpetofaunal analyses of rainforest areas in Africa and show the importance of some regions as refugial area for species communities as well as an analysis of species compositions between those areas.

While rainforest distribution patterns of lizards and snakes in humid areas are relatively well known, our knowledge on species in arid regions is sparse, especially their distribution across sub Saharan Africa. Therefore agamid lizards, as typical savannah and dry forest species, are used as model group to analyse arid distribution corridors in Africa. In addition to the distribution patterns I will present a short overview of the group and their phylogeny.

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Invited by Heike Feldhaar, Animal Population Ecology

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