Leiocephalus herminieri (Martinique Curly-tailed Lizard)

[Melanie]

The Martinique Curly-tailed Lizard (Leiocephalus herminieri) is an extinct lizard from the family of curly-tailed lizards (Leiocephalidae). The Latin name commedorates the French naturalist Félix Louis L'Herminier. There are five museum specimens of which three are deposed in Paris, one in London and a further in Leiden. Though Martinique is assumed as range of this species there was some confusion about the type locality in the past. While André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron stated Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago as type locality George Albert Boulenger has given only Trinidad and Tobago as terra typica. Biology, the reasons for its extinction and the date of extinction are unknown. This species was last collected in the 1830s.

Of the three specimens from Paris the largest female is measured with 139 mm and the largest male with 126 mm. The large head scales are more or less distinctly striate. The large dorsal scales are keeled and forming continuous oblique series. The smaller lateral and ventral scales are keeled too. The back is greenish brown with less or more irregular yellowish crossbands. The head is yellowish with four or five black bars on the sides. The venter is yellowish. The throat has oblique black transverse bands.

References
Albert Schwartz und Robert W. Henderson: Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions, and Natural History. University Press of Florida, 1991, ISBN 0813010497

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinique_Curly-tailed_Lizard

[Melanie]

[another specialist]

www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/11389/all

[another specialist]

Jan 31, 2008 1:30:04 GMT Melanie said:

another version



www.astrobio.net/news/modules/gallery/origins/aau

[another specialist]

Conservation Biology: For the Coming Decade By Peggy Lee Fiedler, Peter M. Kareiva

[another specialist]

Caribbean Amphibians and Reptiles
By Brian I. Crother, Albert Schwartz

[surroundx]

Pregill, Gregory K. (1992). Systematics of the West Indian Lizard Genus Leiocephalus (Squamata: Iguania: Tropiduridae). The University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Miscellaneous Publications, No. 84: 1-69.

[Sebbe]

This species is known only from Martinique, from which it has not been recorded since the 1830s. It is undoubtedly now Extinct, although the reasons are unknown.

This species was apparently endemic to Martinique (Henderson and Powell 2009). The precise area where it occurred is unknown, however Duméril and Bibron (1837) identify the collection data for the holotype as "Trinite"; this name refers to a town on the island, and this is the interpretation favoured by Parker (1935). Duméril and Bibron (1837) however refer to Iles de Trinite (=Trinidad), but there is no evidence that any member of this genus ever occurred on Trinidad and the association of the Trinite locality with the island is likely to have been an error made by the describing authors. The locality data associated with subsequent specimens includes records from both Martinique and Trinidad, but the latter may have been simply a transit port (Pregill 1992).

The species has not been collected since 1837 and is classified as probably extinct by Powell and Henderson (2012). There is no reasonable doubt that this species, which would have been conspicuous and likely tolerant of human disturbance on a well-populated large island, is indeed now extinct (R. Powell pers. comm. 2015). It appears to have been abundant where it occurred in the 18th Century, although its range may have been very restricted (Breuil 2002).

The causes of extinction of this lizard are not established; it seems to have been abundant in the 18th century, but its range could also have been very restricted. It may have been a beach dweller, as are other species in the genus, and if so tsunami waves may have destroyed its last littoral habitats in Martinique. The 1843 earthquake in Guadeloupe produced waves that may have submerged its habitats, as a 1-2 m increase of sea level was detected hundreds of kilometres from the epicentre. It has been suggested that this species possesses morphological characteristics, being terrestrial, that make it vulnerable to predation by the small Asian mongoose, however in the Greater Antilles Leiocephalus survive well in areas where this predator is found, although possibly at depressed densities (R. Powell pers. comm. 2015). As there is a gap of more than 50 years between the last sighting of this lizard and the introduction of the mongoose, this is an unlikely cause of extinction (Breuil 2009).

www.iucnredlist.org/details/11389/0