Macroscopic description of the limb muscles of Tupinambis merianae

Abstract

Tegu lizard (Tupinambis merianae) belongs to the Teiidae family. It is distributed throughout the Americas, with many species, including Brazilian ones. They are from the Tupinambis genus, the largest representatives of the Teiidae family. For this study three animals (run over) coming from donation were used. The dissected lizards were fixed in 10%, formaldehyde, and the macroscopic analysis was carried out in a detailed and photo documented way, keeping the selected structures “in situ”. This paper had as its main aim contributing to the macroscopic description of the chest myology, as well as the thoracic and pelvic limbs of the lizard T. merianae. The results obtained from this research were compared to authors who have studied animals from the same Reptilia class. Thus, we conclude that our macroscopic results are similar to those already described by the researchers Hildebrand (1995), Moro and Abdala (2004) and Abdala and Diogo (2010). We should highlight that the knowledge on anatomy has importance and applications to various areas within Biology, contributing in a substantial way to the areas of human health and technology.

Keywords

• Lizard
• Reptiles
• Tegu
• Teiidae