Sexual dimorphism in Blanford’s Fringe-toed Lizard,Acanthodactylus blanfordiBoulenger, 1918, from Southern Iran

Detailed investigations carried out on a population of Acanthodactylus blanfordi Boulenger, 1918, from Hormozgan Province, southern Iran, to clarify the presence of sexual dimorphism and determine clear-cut characters for distinguishing the two sexes showed that sexual dimorphism is significant (P<0.05) in some metric and pholidosis characters. Males have relatively longer snout-vent length and tail length than females. The results can be explained by intrasexual selection as well as by the fecundity advantage hypothesis. Differences in colour pattern and colouration between the two sexes are not obvious.