Cordylus macropholis
species of reptile
Cordylus macropholis, the large-scaled girdled lizard, is a small (55-77 mm) lizard endemic to the west coast of South Africa. They spend most of their time on and around a single plant species, Euphorbia caput-medusae which only occupies around 5% of the vegetation present. It is thought that they restrict themselves to these plants because they provide safer hiding places than most other shrubs, house a large range of invertebrate prey, and provide good thermal microhabitats. They can additionally be found sunbathing on, or hiding in between rocks, as these could provide protection from larger predators from which their physical adaptations might not provided them with adequate protection.
“Cordylus macropholis” enters the record as species of reptile. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cordylus, macropholis and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Cordylus macropholis” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cordylus, macropholis and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2997181. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cordylus macropholis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.