Navassa Curly-tailed Lizard

Navassa curly-tailed lizard
Conservation status
Extinct (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Leiocephalidae
Genus:	Leiocephalus
Species:	L. eremitus
Binomial name
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 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

It was endemic to Navassa Island.

Description

The size of the holotype is given as 64 mm (2½ inches) snout-vent length (SVL). 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 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

• 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

External links

• Photograph of the holotype