Resplendent River Dragon
This dazzling green lizard is a Chinese water dragon, so named because the species lives around the rivers and streams that run through its jungle habitat. When threatened, they will often evade a predator by jumping into the water.
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This dazzling green lizard is a Chinese water dragon, so named because the species lives around the rivers and streams that run through its jungle habitat. When threatened, they will often evade a predator by jumping into the water.
What am I looking at?
This is a Chinese water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus), also known as an Indochinese water dragon, Asian water dragon, Thai water dragon, or green water dragon. You can see its eye (1) and the spiked scales that line its back (2).
Click on the right arrow to see a closer view of this lizard’s eye.
Biology in the background
These lizards are native to the forests of southern China and mainland Southeast Asia. They spend their nights sleeping in the treetops near a body of water. During the day, they come down to eat insects, worms, snails, other small vertebrates, and plants near the water’s edge. They are good swimmers and can use the water as an escape route if they’re threatened by a predator or a larger dragon. The males are territorial and try to intimidate their rivals by puffing up their neck, raising the spiked scales on their back, and standing as tall as possible to make themselves look larger.
The bright color of this dragon’s skin comes from four kinds of pigment cells: xanthophores and erythrophores, which contain peridine and carotenoid vesicles, producing yellow to red coloration; melanophores, which contain the light-absorbing pigment melatonin and are present in the patches of skin that are brown to black (these pigment cells also affect the brightness of the other colors); and, finally, iridophores, which are responsible for the green and blue hues (purine crystals within them interact with light by means of scattering, diffraction, and thin-layer interference – think of soap bubbles or oil on the surface of water). Blue and green are so-called structural colors, because it is the structure of crystals or other microstructures rather than the presence of a pigment that generates them. Structural coloration is responsible for the blues and greens of many animals, including birds and insects.
This is considered a threatened species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List because their meat is prized in some Asian cultures, and they are also popular as pets.
These dragons can grow up to almost a meter long (about 3 feet).
Technique
These images were created using macrophotography.
TagsIgor Siwanowicz, Janelia Research Campus of The Howard Hughes Medical Institute