Abstract
I COMMUNICATED to NATURE of February 27, 1896, and elsewhere, details with accompanying figures concerning the bipedal locomotion of the North Australian Frilled Lizard Chlamydosaurus Kingi, and which, with reference to such method of progression, apparently occupied a unique position among existing reptilia. As the result of a more recent investigation, I have discovered that a corresponding bipedal gait is assumed under favourable conditions—i.e. when running across a wide expanse of smooth and level ground—by the handsome Australian water lizard, Physignathus Lessuri, such method of progress being most conspicuously manifested by the young and slender individuals. I have also ascertained that a similar mode of locomotion is adopted under like conditions by Amphibolurus muricatus, and I am inclined to anticipate that it will be found to obtain among many other of the Australian, and possibly African, Agamoid lizards that share with the foregoing species a relatively excessive development of the hinder limbs.
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SAVILLE-KENT, W. Bipedal Locomotion among Existing Reptiles. Nature 56, 271 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056271a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056271a0
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