Chinese Water Dragon Facts

Common Names E: Chinese Water Dragon, Green Water Dragon, Thai Water Dragon, Asian water dragon
G: Grüne Wasseragame
Type species: Physignathus cocincinus CUVIER 1829 is the type species of the genus Physignathus CUVIER 1829. The genus Physignathus is not monophyletic (TOWNSEND et al. 2011), which is why lesueurii has been assigned to various other genera.

Spelling: The original spelling in Cuvier 1829: 41 was “Phyhignat,us cocincinus” (including the typos and the comma) although the section heading was “Les Physignathes”, hence it is assumed that the species name was a (pretty serious) typo.

Karyotype: 2n=26, fundamental number (NF) = 48 in both males and females. 5 metacentric pairs and one submetacentric pair of macrochromosomes, 12 pairs of apparent microchromosomes. No apparent sex chromosomes (Patawang et al. 2015).