Navassa Curly-tailed Lizard
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| Navassa Curly-tailed Lizard | ||||||||||||||
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| Leiocephalus eremitus (Cope, 1868) |
The Navassa Curly-tailed Lizard (Leiocephalus eremitus) is an extinct lizard species from the family of Curly-tailed lizards (Leiocephalidae). It was endemic to Navassa Island and is only known by one single female which was described in 1868. A second specimen which was collected by Rollo Beck in 1917 was identified as Tiburon Curly-tailed Lizard (Leiocephalus melanochlorus) by herpetologist Richard Thomas in 1966.
The size of the holotype is given with 64 mm. The head and ventral scales are smooth. The dorsal scales are larger than the flank and the ventral scales. The dorsum is dark gray with nine dark transverse bars. The tail is pale with transverse bars on the basal half and uniformly dark dark gray to black on the ulterior half. Throat, breast, belly and the extremities are brown with pale tipped scales.
Nothing is known about its biology. The reason for its extinction is unknown too but it might due to the alteration of its habitat.
[edit] References
- Albert Schwartz and Robert W. Henderson: Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions, and Natural History. University Press of Florida, 1991, ISBN 0813010497
- Robert Powell: Herpetology of Navassa Island, West Indies. In: Caribbean Journal of Science. Vol. 35, No. 1-2, 1-13, 1999 PDF fulltext
[edit] External links
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