We revise the taxonomy of the agamid genus Sitana Cuvier, 1829, a widely distributed terrestrial lizard from the Indian subcontinent based on detailed comparative analyses of external morphology, osteology and molecular data. We sampled 81 locations spread over 160,000 km2 in Peninsular India including type localities, which represented two known and five previously undescribed species. Based o...

The genus Sitana was described by Cuvier (1829) on the basis of a single species, S. ponticeriana. The secondly described, Sitana minor Günther, 1864, is identical to S. ponticeriana Cuvier, 1829, and should be considered as a junior objective synonym of the latter. The syntypes of S. deccanensis Jerdon, 1870 have been rediscovered, misplaced among the syntypes of S. minor (sensu Boulenger 1885...

Herpetological Review has recently featured a series of papers debating the merits of recent developments in the theory and practice of systematic biology, using herpetological examples. In the latest and longest paper in this series, Pritchard (1994) passionately argued against many of these "cladistic" developments. Here I address three issues raised in his paper that bear directly on my own ...