Iranolacerta zagrosica (Rastegar-Pouyani & Nilson, 1998)

HOLOTYPE. GNHM Re. ex. 5149.

TYPE LOCALITY. 3 km NW Fereydun Shahr, Esfahan Prov., Iran.

DISTRIBUTION. Endemic to Iran.

DISTRIBUTION IN IRAN. Fig. 109. Known only from a couple of localities in the central Zagros Mts. (Esfahan, Lorestan Prov.) .

HABITAT. A high-altitude species inhabiting rocky outcrops and vertical walls on alpine meadows from 2450–3200 m. It was found sympatric with I. brandtii which occurred on horizontal stony-gravel substrate, while I. zagrosica lived on rocky slopes (Nilson et al. 2003).

REMARKS. Based on the phylogenetic reconstruction by Ahmadzadeh et al. (2013a), the split between I. brandtii and I. zagrosica took place 2.4–4.5 Mya.

REFERENCES. Rastegar-Pouyani & Nilson (1998); Anderson (1999); Nilson et al. (2003); Arnold et al. (2006, 2007); Rajabizadeh et al. (2010c); Ahmadzadeh et al. (2013b).