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Amphisbaena acrobeles (RIBEIRO, CASTRO-MELLO & NOGUEIRA, 2009)

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Higher TaxaAmphisbaenidae, Amphisbaenia, Lacertoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymAnops acrobeles RIBEIRO, CASTRO-MELLO & NOGUEIRA 2009
Amphisbaena acrobeles (by implication fide MOTT & VIEITES 2009)
Amphisbaena acrobelis — PEREZ et al. 2012 
DistributionBrazil (Tocantins: Jalapão Region in the Cerrado)

Type locality: close to the northern limits of Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, Tocantins, Brazil.  
Reproduction 
TypesHolotype: MZUSP 96337 (field number CN 1034), specimen (sex undetermined, specimen with posteriormost section of body mutilated) from a pit-fall trapping site covered with typical Cerrado savannas, close to the northern limits of Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: This new species of Anops may be distinguished from A. bilabialatus and A. kingii by showing an extremely narrow head (37.2% head length vs. 62.5–77.6% head length; Fig. 4); a row of eight occipitals anterior to the first body annulus (Fig. 3A; vs. scutes absent); temporal present (Fig. 3B; vs. absent); mental and postmental fused (vs. distinct); four rows of postgenials located between malars (Fig. 3C; vs. one); two malars posterior to the second infralabial (Fig. 3C; vs. one). Additionally, A. acrobeles differs from A. bilabialatus by showing an elongate rostral in contact with the frontals (vs. rostral relatively short and separated from the frontals); frontal longer than wide (vs. frontal wider than long); ocular relatively elongate, representing 27.7% of head length (vs. short ocular, 12.5–14.7% of head length); three supralabials (vs. two); postsupralabial absent (vs. present); three infralabials (vs. two). It further differs from A. kingii by not showing a preocular and a postsupralabial (vs. present). Moreover, second supralabial in the new species is ca. two times longer than the other supralabials (vs. supralabials with similar proportions); second supralabial longer than high (vs. second supralabial higher than long); 296 + n (specimen mutilated, missing posterior third of body) body annuli (vs. 214– 244 body annuli). 
CommentAbundance: only known from the type locality (Meiri et al. 2017). This is one of the species called 'lost' and 'rediscovered' by Lindken et al. 2024. 
EtymologyNamed after the Greek ákros = distal portion, and, beles = pointed. The specific epithet is a reference to the extremely acute rostral of the new species, much more pronounced than in the other two species of the genus [according to RIBEIRO et al. 2009 there are 3 species in Anops: acrobeles, bilabialatus, and kingii]. 
References
  • Lindken T.; Anderson, C. V., Ariano-Sánchez, D., Barki, G., Biggs, C., Bowles, P., Chaitanya, R., Cronin, D. T., Jähnig, S. C., Jeschke, J. M., Kennerley, R. J., Lacher, T. E. Jr., Luedtke, J. A., Liu, C., Long, B., Mallon, D., Martin, G. M., Meiri, 2024. What factors influence the rediscovery of lost tetrapod species? Global Change Biology, 30: 1-18 - get paper here
  • Meiri, Shai; Aaron M. Bauer, Allen Allison, Fernando Castro-Herrera, Laurent Chirio, Guarino Colli, Indraneil Das, Tiffany M. Doan, Frank Glaw, Lee L. Grismer, Marinus Hoogmoed, Fred Kraus, Matthew LeBreton, Danny Meirte, Zoltán T. Nagy, Cristiano d 2017. Extinct, obscure or imaginary: the lizard species with the smallest ranges. Diversity and Distributions - get paper here
  • Mott, Tamí; David R. Vieites 2009. Molecular phylogenetics reveals extreme morphological homoplasy in Brazilian worm lizards challenging current taxonomy. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 51 (2): 190-200 - get paper here
  • PEREZ, RENATA; SÍRIA RIBEIRO & MÁRCIO BORGES-MARTINS 2012. Reappraisal of the taxonomic status of Amphisbaena prunicolor (Cope 1885) and Amphisbaena albocingulata Boettger 1885 (Amphisbaenia: Amphisbaenidae). Zootaxa 3550: 1–25 - get paper here
  • Ribeiro, SÍria; Carolina Castro-Mello, Cristiano Nogueira 2009. New Species of Anops Bell, 1833 (Squamata, Amphisbaenia) from Jalapão Region in the Brazilian Cerrado. Journal of Herpetology 43 (1):21-28 - get paper here
 
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