Please see:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230165917_Function_and_evolution_of_the_frill_of_the_frillneck_lizard_Chlamydosaurus_kingii_Sauria_Agamidae and https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article-abstract/40/1/11/2654260?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false and
https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/129/2/425/5679583?login=false and https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Function-and-evolution-of-the-frill-of-the-lizard%2C-Shine/b105042138edb1962983700d01f1f5a68c4f138d
https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR9890491
https://brill.com/view/journals/amre/26/1/article-p65_10.xml
https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article-abstract/152/1/437/2838531/The-acoustical-effect-of-the-neck-frill-of-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext
http://www.smuggled.com/Issue-14-24-26.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anthony-Griffiths-2/publication/321765547_Preliminary_investigations_on_the_reproduction_of_the_Frillneck_Lizard_Chlamydosaurus_kingii_in_the_Northern_Territory_A_Diverse_Discipline/links/5b4467860f7e9bb59b1b2edd/Preliminary-investigations-on-the-reproduction-of-the-Frillneck-Lizard-Chlamydosaurus-kingii-in-the-Northern-Territory-A-Diverse-Discipline.pdf
Chlamydosaurus kingii (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/31215-Chlamydosaurus-kingii and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLY2gNiOFzk and https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2019/08/the-science-behind-the-frill-of-the-frillneck-lizard/) is a distinctively Australian lizard.
This monospecific genus is well-known for an extreme anatomical structure: a foldable neck-frill, which is erectile by virtue of the opening of the mouth.
However, what is underappreciated is how odd this lizard is, in combining
POSTURES AND GAITS
Chlamydosaurus kingii is specialised for clinging inconspicuously to the boles of trees (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148718528
and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/52991997) - which many photographs show it doing in the rainy season, as part of its sit-and-wait foraging strategy.
Furthermore, it spends the dry season on branches in the crowns of trees, where - in a metabolically quiescent state - it is further hidden by shading and plant-structural clutter.
What this means is that, for about half the year, the head is habitually oriented horizontally, while for the other half of the year, the head is habitually oriented vertically. During the former period, the animal tends to be semi-torpid and relatively inattentive, whereas in the latter period, the animal is alert, spotting its prey (mainly invertebrates) on the ground.
This implies that the eyes have a different relationship to the head during the two periods.
When C. kingii clings to boles, the rigidly vertical orientation of the head seems unremarkable.
However, this vertical orientation of the head tends to remain even when the animal stands quadrupedally on the ground (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138701495 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/137342571 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124301082 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/120806132 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66077775) - which it does mainly in the rainy season, when foraging on the ground.
The orientation tends towards the horizontal when C. kingii runs bipedally with the mouth open (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAo09yYOpCU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1-U0rzMu1w and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLuoExytqEA).
What does not seem to have been pointed out before is that the eyelids - as well as presumably the eyeballs - swivel with changes in the orientation of the head, from vertical to horizontal.
Various animals, including caprin bovids (https://unsplash.com/photos/eHN5Q5NYEeE and https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-soay-sheep-ovis-aries-head-1189301416 and https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-two-soay-sheep-their-offspring-2292568177), are capable of swivelling the eyeballs within the eye-sockets, compensating for shifts in orientation from horizontal to vertical.
Such swivelling of the eyeball itself is not apparent in photographs of C. kingii, because the pupil is circular.
However, photos do show that the eyelids swivel (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65780916 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/62466981v and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/29635 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149706848 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10012025 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/140023159 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/89445688 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71782453 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66803743 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/64574420 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63739826).
This has not been recorded in any mammal or bird, and it suggests that the whole complex, of eyeball plus lids, swivels in the orbits
Turning now to gaits:
Despite its arboreal specialisation, C. kingii tends to adopt upright bipedality when running (https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/video/track-right-as-frilled-lizard-runs-on-hind-legs-in-stock-video-footage/1B02409_0002 and https://gdeichmann.photoshelter.com/image/I0000P8K3H95toi8 and https://gdeichmann.photoshelter.com/image/I0000smri2ParobQ) and walking on the ground.
Several Australian agamids tend to run bipedally. However,
The upright bipedality of C. kingii seems to be facilitated by the proportionately long neck of the species, which allows the animal to lean backwards in maintaining balance.
What this means is that, in their own ways, both the eyes and the cervical vertebrae are adaptively modified in ways consistent with the dual locomotory specialisation of the species.
COLOURATION
The conspicuous colouration of C. kingii is displayed while bluffing would-be predators, as well as when interacting socially/sexually (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkz9PCcRNYE).
The full anti-predator display - which is largely bluff, because the C. kingii has neither formidable teeth nor venom - consists of
The colouration of C. kingii varies
There seems to be scant sexual dimorphism in colouration in C. kingii, despite the fact that mature males can weigh twice as much as adult females, and have the head and frill disproportionately large.
If this is true, it is at odds with the family Agamidae, in which many or most spp. have males considerably brighter-hued than females.
Many photographs show pale jowls, contrasting with darkened ground-colour:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145563138
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/116267273
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/109011061
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108170390
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/100160140
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/95248964
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65996784
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61998490
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58015786
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36349040
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18626137
I have yet to understand the adaptive value of this feature, which
GEOGRAPHICALLY-CORRELATED VARIATION IN HUE OF FRILL
red hue (Kimberley of Western Australia):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/901378
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/901384
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145822596
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Frilled-lizard500.jpg
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67514916
yellow hue (northernmost Queensland):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145745999
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/110824795
dark spot on frill:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7534956
maximum display:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Chlamydosaurus_kingii.jpg
to be continued in https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/82751-the-frilled-lizard-agamidae-chlamydosaurus-kingii-part-5-why-no-african-counterpart#...
Comments
https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/117/3/503/2440338?login=false
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.10293
https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ejb/article/view/56581
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.15901
https://www.publish.csiro.au/zo/zo9960059
In infants of Chlamydosaurus kingii, the camouflage-colouration extends even to the orbits and eyelids, on which there is a disruptive pattern, tending to hide the eyes (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138974486 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/117435053 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/53445682).
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/135224748
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126017850
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/102296683
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/176390994
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_spiny-tailed_lizard
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3889844
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbjsJSupKxU
https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article-abstract/40/1/11/2654260?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/89306205
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85108142
https://animallist.weebly.com/australian-frilled-lizard.html
pale tail:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/262101
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85793-3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGNXspDOs34
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/dc11235d-8b3b-43f7-b991-8429f477a1d4/files/29-fauna-2a-squamata-agamidae.pdf
Lizards in the family Agamidae include several other genera with erectable organs if display on the neck/throat.
For example:
Draco volans https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172133198
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66024211
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/103229008
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