Chlamydosaurus kingi

9.9

A large Australian tree lizard that uses a neck frill to scare animals or attract mates

noun
/kləˌmɪdəˈsɔrəs ˈkɪŋɪ/

Specialized

: Chlamydosaurus kingi

The Chlamydosaurus kingi is famous for the impressive frill it displays when threatened.

Examples

During mating season, the male Chlamydosaurus kingi expands its colorful frill to attract females.
The diet of Chlamydosaurus kingi mainly consists of insects and small animals.
Many tourists hope to catch a glimpse of the Chlamydosaurus kingi in Australia's northern forests.
The Chlamydosaurus kingi is often called the frilled lizard.
Did you see the Chlamydosaurus kingi at the zoo?
The Chlamydosaurus kingi uses its frill to intimidate potential predators in the wild.
In the trees of Australia, the Chlamydosaurus kingi can often be seen basking in the sunlight.

Synonyms

frilled lizard

vsChlamydosaurus kingi

Australian

8.9

A large Australian lizard that lives in trees, eats insects, and opens the skin around its neck to scare animals

focuses on the neck ruff used to scare predators or attract mates

Surface Forms

Chlamydosaurus kingi singular

Chlamydosaurus kingis plural

Morphology

Chlamydosaurus + kingi

The genus name 'Chlamydosaurus' directly denotes frilled lizards, so a learner who knows that constituent could infer the phrase refers to a type of frilled lizard. However, 'kingi' is an opaque species epithet/proper name with no lexical meaning, and binomial Latin names are naming conventions rather than fully compositional phrases, so the exact referent/detail is not predictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Chlamydosaurus kingi comes from Greek words: Chlamydosaurus means a 'cloak' or frilled 'lizard', and kingi honors a person named 'King'. Imagine the lizard opening a big 'cloak' around its neck to look larger — that clear image explains its famous neck frill used to scare predators or attract mates.