Age Determination in Some Ophisops elegans Mènètriès 1832 (Sauria: Lacertidae) Populations Living in the Vicinity of Çanakkale and Akşehir-Eber

In this study, age determination was performed with the method of skeletochronology in 23 (13 ♂♂, 10 ♀♀) Ophisops elegans specimens collected from Çanakkale in the west of Turkey and 20 (10 ♂♂, 10 ♀♀) Ophisops elegans specimens collected from the vicinity of AkĢehir-Eber in the Central Anatolia Region. The mean ages of the specimens whose femur cross sections had been examined were determined to be 2.9±0.99 (1-4) in females and 2.85±0.68 (2-4) in males of the Çanakkale population and 3.9±1.19 (3-6) in females and 4.6±1.17 (3-6) in males of the AkĢehir-Eber population. The oldest age among the specimens was found to be six in two female and three male individuals of the AkĢehir-Eber population. When all specimens were evaluated altogether, the correlation between snoutvent length and age was computed as (r=0.572, p=0.008) in females and as (r=0.642, p=0.001) in males.