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But scientists who looked primarily at fossils championed the large and diverse iguanian family — a group that includes chameleons, iguanas and agamas — as the earliest modern lizards.

It also has a tail that can move up and down to adjust its body midair, a trick borrowing from the leaping agama lizard.

Biomechanicist Robert Full and colleagues videotaped red-headed Agama agama lizards, which are about the size of a small rat, as they ran and vaulted off obstacles with surfaces ranging from smooth paper to gritty sandpaper.

Among the amphibia in Callao, the iguana and land agama are numerous.

The blades of the yuccas are dimmed by dust, and resemble clusters of half-rusty bayonets; and the low scrubby copses of acacia scarce offer a shade to the dusky agama and the ground rattlesnake.