Navassa curly-tailed lizard

Navassa curly-tailed lizard
Conservation status
Extinct (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Iguania
Family:	Leiocephalidae
Genus:	Leiocephalus
Species:	L. eremitus
Binomial name
Leiocephalus eremitus (Cope, 1868)
Synonyms
Liocephalus [sic] eremitus Cope, 1868 Leiocephalus eremitus — Thomas, 1966

The Navassa curly-tailed lizard (Leiocephalus eremitus) is an extinct lizard species from the family of curly-tailed lizards (Leiocephalidae). It is known only from the one female specimen from which it was described in 1868. A second specimen which was collected by Rollo Beck in 1917 was identified as a Tiburon curly-tailed lizard (Leiocephalus melanochlorus) by herpetologist Richard Thomas in 1966.

Geographic range

Leiocephalus eremitus was endemic to Navassa Island.

Description

The size of the holotype is given as snout-vent length (SVL). The head and ventral scales are smooth. The dorsal scales are larger than the scales on the flanks 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 gray to black on the posterior half. Throat, breast, belly and the extremities are brown with pale-tipped scales.

Behavior and Habitat

Nothing is known about its biology. The reason for its extinction is unknown too, but it might have been due to the alteration of its habitat.

References

• Schwartz, A., and R.W. Henderson. 1991. Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions, and Natural History. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1049-7.
• Powell, R. 1999. Herpetology of Navassa Island, West Indies. Caribbean J. Sci. 35 (1-2): 1-13. PDF fulltext

Further reading

• Boulenger, G.A. 1885. Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume II. Iguanidæ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural HIstory). (Taylor and Francis, printers.) xiii + 497 pp. + Plates I.- XXIV. (Liocephalus [sic] eremitus, p. 165.)
• Cope, E.D. 1868. An Examination of the REPTILIA and BATRACHIA obtained by the Orton Expedition to Equador [sic] and the Upper Amazon, with notes on other Species. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 20: 96-140. (Liocephalus [sic] eremitus, sp.nov., p. 122.)
• Schwartz, A., and R. Thomas. 1975. A Check-list of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 216 pp. (Leiocephalus eremitus, p. 129.)
• Thomas, R. 1966. A reassessment of the herpetofauna of Navassa Island. J. Ohio Herpetol. Soc. 5: 73-89. (Leiocephalus eremitus, p. 80.)

External links

• Photograph of the holotype