Thursday, July 8, 2010

The Dragons

There are about 70 species of dragons found in Australia in many different habitats, most being found in the warm arid northern areas.



The area around Wodgina provides a number of habitats for dragons. One species would occur on or near the rocks, while a different one would occur on the sandy plains below, often within metres of each other.




The sandy soil loving Central Military Dragon (Ctenophorus isolepis).



The rocky soil loving Ring-tailed Dragon (Ctenophorus caudicinctus).


 

A dragon that loves eucalypt-lined river systems in the Pilbara is the Long-nosed Dragon (Amphibolurus longirostris). 

 

Easy to identify with that long nose and super-white lip.
 


This is one lucky dragon, a Dwarf Bearded Dragon (Pogona minor), who was almost a pancake. You can see he's sitting on our tyre track from the way in and almost got run over when we were coming out.
 


He (or she) wasn't going to move.


 

Wonderful face patterns, including a strong ring-like structure I haven't seen before.

 


A nicely shaped head with great scales. You can see the pale Parietal Eye in the centre. For more info about the eye, see  http://wazoologist.blogspot.com/2010/06/wodgina-varanids.html


 
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4 comments:

  1. WilmaJuly 8, 2010 at 10:57 AM

    Beautiful animals! You really captured a lot of detail in these photos. If you defocus your eyes on the 3rd photo, it looks like a dragon draped across knees instead of fingertips. Now that would be one big dragon! ;-)

    cheers,
    Wilma

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  2. PennyJuly 8, 2010 at 1:33 PM

    Oh yes, I love dragons, our local one doesnt seem to be as obvious as it was when I was a child, but then perhaps I dont go to places like that any more!

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  3. Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife SafarisJuly 8, 2010 at 3:27 PM

    Great pics again Richard. On the parietal eye I wonder if reps have them because their scales are more impervious to light than skin and feathers or skin and hair so birds and mammals don't need one.

    Cheers

    davo

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  4. Richard KingJuly 9, 2010 at 11:50 AM

    Thank you.

    Wilma, I see what you mean! If those were my knees I wouldn't have that guy sitting on me! He would prabaly try to take my hand off.

    Penny, yes I love dragons too, wonderful reptiles and some local ones have disappeared.

    Davo, I'm not sure but that sounds very logical to me.

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