The body size, age structure, and growth of Bosc’s fringe-toed lizard, Acanthodactylus boskianus (Daudin, 1802)

Using skeletochronology, the age structure of a breeding population portion of Acanthodactylus boskianus (Daudin, 1802) from the southeast of Turkey was studied for the first time. A total of 21 preserved (9♂♂, 8♀♀, and 4 juveniles) specimens were used in this study. According to the analysis of the age structure based on counting lines of arrested growth, ages ranged from 6 to 9 years (mean: 7.44 ± 0.34 years) in males and from 5 to 7 years (mean: 6.13 ± 0.30 years) in females. Juveniles were from 3 to 4 years old. Age at maturity was estimated to be 4–5 years and the adult survival rates were estimated to be 0.62 for males and 0.56 for females. The mean snout–vent length was calculated as 79.09 ± 1.16 mm in males, 65.90 ± 2.02 in females, and 43.55 ± 2.02 mm in juveniles. The sexual dimorphism index was calculated as –0.20. The difference between the sexes in age and size was statistically significant.