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Note on the Mesopotamian spiny-tailed lizard, Saara loricata (Blanford, 1874): morphometrics and evidence for gender partitioning of hematological data

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Abstract

Although the knowledge of morphometrics and hematology of reptiles in health has grown substantially in recent years, there are still knowledge gaps in many species and from different geographical regions. The objectives of this study were to document morphometrical measurements and hematological data of clinically healthy free-ranging adult Mesopotamian spiny-tailed lizards (Saara loricata), the Iraqi Mastigure or Iraqi spiny-tailed lizard, from Khuzestan Province, Iran, and to investigate sex differences in evaluated parameters. Although we did not observe any gender differences in morphometrical measurements, the visually larger genital pores of males allowed for differentiation of study animals into females (n = 6) and males (n = 5). We obtained femoral vein blood samples for hematological analysis, including detailed red blood cell (RBC) measurements, RBC count, packed cell volume (PCV), white blood cell (WBC) counts, and blood film review. Gender differences were identified in some RBC measurements, notably length and width of erythrocytes and nucleus width, as well as RBC and WBC counts. Gametocytes of hemogregarines varied from absent to frequent. The information presented herein will be useful for interpretative considerations of health assessment data for this species from Iran in comparison to data from the same and closely related species from other geographical regions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. J. Hernandez, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, for advice on statistical analysis. We thank Dr. N. Yousofvand, Dr. R. Karamiani, and M. Ezati, Department of Biology, Razi University, Iran, for technical assistance; R. Komeilinezhad for assistance in field expeditions and collecting specimens; and K. Hatami, Department of Biology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran, for support with blood sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, 6714967346, Iran

    Mohsen Takesh, Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani & Ahmad Gharzi

  2. Iranian Plateau Herpetology Research Group (IPHRG), Faculty of Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, 6714967346, Iran

    Mohsen Takesh, Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani & Ahmad Gharzi

  3. Department of Comparative, Diagnostic, and Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, 2015 SW 16th Avenue, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA

    Nicole I. Stacy

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  1. Mohsen Takesh
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  2. Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani
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  4. Nicole I. Stacy
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Correspondence to Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani.

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This study was approved by the ethics committee and was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the committee at Razi University (Permit code 396-2-026).

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Morphometrics & hematology of the spiny-tailed lizard

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Takesh, M., Rastegar-Pouyani, N., Gharzi, A. et al. Note on the Mesopotamian spiny-tailed lizard, Saara loricata (Blanford, 1874): morphometrics and evidence for gender partitioning of hematological data. Comp Clin Pathol 29, 691–696 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-020-03110-2

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