Petracola facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Petracola |
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Gymnophthalmidae |
| Genus: | Petracola Doan & Castoe, 2005 |
Petracola is a group of small lizards that live only in Peru, a country in South America. These lizards belong to a larger family called Gymnophthalmidae. This family includes many types of small, often worm-like lizards found in Central and South America.
Contents
What are Petracola Lizards?
Petracola lizards are known for being quite small. They are often found in specific areas of Peru, showing how unique the wildlife in that region can be. Scientists study these lizards to learn more about biodiversity and how different species adapt to their environments.
Where Do Petracola Lizards Live?
These lizards are endemic to Peru. This means they are found naturally only in Peru and nowhere else in the world. They typically live in different habitats, from forests to rocky areas, depending on the specific species. Their unique homes make them special to Peru's natural heritage.
Meet the Petracola Species
Currently, there are five different types, or species, of Petracola lizards that scientists have officially recognized. Each one has its own unique features, even though they all belong to the same genus.
- Petracola angustisoma (discovered by Echevarría & Venegas in 2015)
- Petracola labioocularis (first described by Köhler & Lehr in 2004)
- Petracola pajatensis (found by Rodríguez & Mamani in 2020)
- Petracola ventrimaculatus (first described by Boulenger in 1900) - sometimes called the spotted lightbulb lizard
- Petracola waka (discovered by Kizirian, Bayefsky-Anand, Eriksson, Le, & Donnelly in 2008)
When you see a name like (Boulenger, 1900) in parentheses, it means that the scientist Boulenger first described this lizard. However, they originally placed it in a different group of lizards, not Petracola. Later, other scientists moved it into the Petracola genus because they found it was a better fit. This is part of how scientists organize and understand the animal kingdom.
See also
In Spanish: Petracola para niños
