Leiocephalus roquetus: taxon details and analytics
- Domain
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Leiocephalidae
- Genus
- Leiocephalus
- Species
- Leiocephalus roquetus
- Scientific Name
- Leiocephalus roquetus
Summary description from Wikipedia:
Leiocephalus roquetus
Leiocephalus roquetus, also known as the curlytail roquet or La Désirade curlytail lizard, is an extinct species of lizard in the family of curly-tailed lizard (Leiocephalidae). It was endemic to Guadeloupe.
The specific epithet, roquetus, refers to the name it was given by early French settlers on Guadeloupe; the indigenous Kalinago name for the species was never recorded. Aside from fossil remains, it is only known from a single specimen collected by one Théodore Roger, who deposited it circa 1835 at the Natural History Museum in Bordeaux; this specimen was misidentified in the mid-20th century as a Martinique curlytail (L. herminieri). The specimen was reexamined in 2015, and with the help of extensive Leiocephalus fossil remains discovered on La Désirade in 2018, was found to be a distinct species, and described as L. roquetus in 2021.
This species, along with L.. herminieri, displays a primitive morphology compared to all other known species of Leiocephalus; it has thus been proposed that roquetus and herminieri belong to a basal clade of Leiocephalus restricted to the Lesser Antilles which has been completely wiped out by humans; all modern Leiocephalus are found only in the Greater Antilles and associated islands. L. roquetus was likely driven to extinction by introduced species, habitat degradation, and intensive agriculture.
...Leiocephalus roquetus in languages:
- French
- Holotropide roquet
Parent Taxon
Sibling Taxa
- Leiocephalus barahonensis
- Leiocephalus carinatus
- Leiocephalus cubensis
- Leiocephalus cuneus
- Leiocephalus endomychus
- Leiocephalus eremitus
- Leiocephalus etheridgei
- Leiocephalus greenwayi
- Leiocephalus herminieri
- Leiocephalus inaguae
- Leiocephalus jamaicensis
- Leiocephalus loxogrammus
- Leiocephalus lunatus
- Leiocephalus macropus
- Leiocephalus melanochlorus
- Leiocephalus onaneyi
- Leiocephalus partidus
- Leiocephalus personatus
- Leiocephalus pratensis
- Leiocephalus psammodromus
- Leiocephalus punctatus
- Leiocephalus raviceps
- Leiocephalus rhutidira
- Leiocephalus roquetus
- Leiocephalus schreibersii
- Leiocephalus semilineatus
- Leiocephalus sixtoi
- Leiocephalus stictigaster
- Leiocephalus varius
- Leiocephalus vinculum