Morphological Assessment and Head Plate Variation of Lebanon Lizard, Phoenicolacerta laevis (Gray, 1838) from Osmaniye, Türkiye

In this study, the sexual variations of the dorsal, ventral and lateral head plates of P. laevis specimens collected from Osmaniye, T & uuml;rkiye (southern Anatolia) were examined and various body measurements were measured by classical morphometric methods and sexual variations were determined by both methods. According to the classical morphometrics, male specimens were found to be larger than female specimens in terms of PL, PW, HW but not SVL (P-PL <0.05; P-PW <0.05; P-HW <0.05; P-SVL = 0.4741). On the other hand, Ax-In averages were found be larger in female specimens than in male specimens. In addition, statistically significant differences were found for all ratios. Geometric morphometric analyses showed sexual dimorphism was detected between the dorsal, ventral and lateral head plates. The parietals were wider in males, and the prefrontal narrowed laterally from posterior to anterior. The rostrale was smaller in males, suboculare was backward and higher positioned in females. Inframaxillary positioned more angled in males. All result showed males has a head; wider at posterior and sharpened in anterior. Also, for dorsal (P < 0.0001) and, lateral (P < 0.0001) head plates allometric shape changes were observed but not for the ventral (P: 0.1196) head plates.