Uromasticinae are distributed in North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and south-western Asia, favoring arid and semi-arid desert, xeric shrubland, and dry steppe environments. Uromastyx are concentrated in the Sahara desert and Maghreb region of northern Africa, and into the Middle East, with Saara located between eastern Iraq and western India. The split between the genera 25–29 million years ago.

 

Uromastyx :

 

African countries:
Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara

 

Middle Eastern countries:
Coastal Iran only (Persian Gulf), Iraq, Isreal, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Yemen

 

There are several Uromastyx species, only a few of which are commonly kept in captivity in the United States & Europe. Some sources lump species, others separate into subspecies, while others place them in their own species – some cases into other genera completely (see the Saara genus, above). Misidentification and the occurrence of inter-grades between species makes identification difficult & complex. The number of species is between 13 and 20, depending on which particular grouping methods (morphological, molecular, karyotype, mitochondrial DNA, etc.) and the age of the study. Morphometric data includes the typical snout-to-vent length (SVL); scale count around the body, head, neck, and toes; the number of tail whorls; and the presence of femoral and preanal pores.

 

For this article, we discuss the 20 species as identified by Wilms et al. data published in 2009. This data may be updated in the future as new studies are published. Differences between genetic and morphological analysis is likely based on convergent evolution due to similar ecological niches.

 

Despite the somewhat murky species designations, five main clades, or groups, are supported (to varying degrees) by genetic data within the Uromastyx genus:

 

Acanthinura clade (U. d. dispar, U. d. maliensis, U. d. flavifasciata, alfredschmidti, geyri, acanthinura and nigriventris)
Aegyptia clade (polytypic species clade: U. a. aegyptia, U. a. microlepis and U. a. leptieni)
Ocellata clade (ocellata, ornata and philbyi, yemenensis, shobraki and benti)
Macfadyeni/Princeps clade (macfadyeni and princeps; NOT strongly linked, relationship unresolved)
Thomasi (U. thomasi, single-species clade)

 

Not included in the latest genetic research is Uromastyx occidentalis (Western Giant Spiny-tailed Lizard) of Western Sahara, which is known from limited specimens. Morphologically, U. occidentalis is closest to the Aegyptia group by having a larger number of scales than the other Uromastyx groups. Lower scale counts is considered to be the plesiomorphic (ancestral) state, while larger count is apomorphic (derived). U. occidentalis is likely not a subspecies of U. agyptia due to the lack of femoral pores and the distances between the Western African and Arabian distributions. U. a. occidentalis is moved to its own clade awaiting further research.

 

It is interesting to note that the two “broad-tailed” species, U. princeps and U. thomasi, are not shown to be as closely related to each other, despite having very similar shorter tails. U. princeps has closer afiliation to U. macfadyeni, which in turn appears to be morphologiccally similar to U. o. ornata assigned to the ocellata clade. Superficially similar physical traits can lead to confused taxonomy among the varied Uromastyx species. Most species-level distinctions relate to the number of whorls in tail spikes, the presence or absecne of pores, scale size, and scale count. This may change as more genetic research is performed.

 

20 UROMASTYX SPECIES