BAUER, DEBOER, & TAYLOR: ATLAS OF THE REPTILES OF LIBYA 
159 
‘ Aziziyah in the northwest of Libya was long regarded as the hottest place on earth, with a record 
high temperature of 58°C. Although this is now regarded as an error (El Fadli et al. 2013), the town 
nonetheless has a mean July temperature of 39.2°C and is one of the hottest places in Africa. 
Nonetheless, frost can occur at higher elevations inland and, rarely, even near the coast. 
Vegetation. — The coastal zone of Libya supports a moderately diverse vegetation similar to 
other North African countries, although it has been characterized as severely degraded in compar¬ 
ison to countries to the west (White 1973) and because of lower rainfall in Libya it exhibits a high¬ 
er percentage of Saharan versus Mediterranean taxa. An exception is the Jabal al Akhdar in Cyre- 
naica which has an especially rich flora for Libya, with more typically Mediterranean taxa than the 
rest of the northern rim of the country (Hegazy et al. 2011). Although trees and shrubs are domi¬ 
nant on the northern slopes of the Jabal al Akhdar, much of the remainder of the Mediterranean cli¬ 
mate zones of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica is typified by grasses and sclerophyllous plants and espe¬ 
cially by taxa of anthropogenic landscapes. Wadis and oases (see below) have more diverse and 
mesic adapted plants than surrounding areas, but are even more heavily impacted by agriculture. 
Within the Libyan Sahara, vegetation zones more-or-less correspond to rainfall regime and 
water availability (White 1973). Rainfall is so low in portions of the Libyan Desert, particularly in 
central and southern Cyrenaica, that plant life may be entirely absent over large areas, although 
seeds may survive in the sand and sprout if and when the rare rains come (Walter 1971). Oases sup¬ 
port unique vegetation, including swamps and stands of Tamarix. Although prior to human 
exploitation of oases the native vegetation included doum palms ( Hyphaene ) and Acacia amongst 
other dominant plants (Walter 1971), today they are dominated by date palms ( Phoenix dactylif- 
era), and especially since the tapping of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, a diversity of other culti¬ 
vated plants. The vegetation of wadis, likewise, are distinctive from that of surrounding areas. 
These may be dominated by Acacia or Tamarix communities (White 1973). The dunes of the sand 
seas may be vegetationless or may support grasses and sclerophyllous shrubs. Gravel plains ( regs ) 
on sand may be characterized by a diversity of therophytes, such that the vegetation may be com¬ 
paratively lush following sporadic rains, but almost unnoticeable at other times. Hamadas and 
compacted regs often have no vegetation except where there are cracks in stone or drainage chan¬ 
nels, in which case grasses may occur. A more mesic adapted Saharomontane vegetation charac¬ 
terizes areas above 1800 meters in the desert, but in Libya, this is found only on the highest parts 
of the northern Tibesti, and even there the Libyan portion of this mountain range receives less rain 
than the south and west facing slopes in Chad. The Jabal Al Uwaynat, despite being over 1900 m, 
lacks this formation, which is taxonomically diverse, and supports instead trees and shrubs of 
Mediterranean affinities (e.g., Lavandula, Salvia ) as well as Acacia in its more protected gorges 
(Quezel (1965). 
Holocene Conditions in Libya.— Although much of Libya is today hyperarid, during most 
of the Cenozoic conditions were both wetter and cooler. Although there are today no flowing rivers 
in the Libyan interior, Libya and adjacent regions of the Sahara have extensive paleohydrological 
systems that would have contained freshwater during more mesic periods (Drake and Bristow 
2006; Ghoneim et al. 2007; Drake et al. 2008; Osborne et al. 2008). Roughly 120,000 years ago 
conditions in the Sahara were likely similar to those prevailing today in parts of the Sahel and wet¬ 
lands, large lakes, and active river systems were present (Pachur and Braun 1980), although 
throughout the intervening period climatic conditions fluctuated between xeric and mesic 
extremes. Approximately 8000 years ago, conditions of the Holocene Climatic Optimum were 
mostly warm and wet with a pronounced monsoon season (Gasse et al. 1990; Rognon 1996; 
Damnati 2000) and the Libyan desert was largely grassland with permanent freshwater lakes 
(Pachur and Braun 1980; Petit-Marie et al. 1980) that supported human populations that subsisted 
