Tarentola albertschwartzi SPRACKLAND & SWINNEY, 1998

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Higher Taxa	Phyllodactylidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Jamaican Giant Gecko
Synonym	Tarentola albertschwartzi SPRACKLAND & SWINNEY 1998: 73 Tarentola (Neotarentola) albertschwartzi — RÖSLER 2000: 115 Tarentola (Neotarentola) albertschwartzi — WEISS & HEDGES 2007 Tarentola albertschwartzi — WILSON 2011
Distribution	Jamaica Type locality: “Jamaica”
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: NMSZ 1884.23.7, adult female (National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh)
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: A large gecko with distinctive enlarged tubercles arranged in well-defined rows on the dorsolateral and lateral surface of the body (Fig. 1a & b), the outline formed by the most ventral of which forms a denticulate margin in which the spaces between tubercles are not visible (Fig. 1c). Such a row, in which there are tubercles but no intervening longitudinal skin, is absent in other Tarentola species. A unique, distinct row of enlarged, denticulate scales extending from the posterior border of the lower jaw to the gular region is also clearly seen from below. The specimen is further distinguished from most other species of Tarentola by its large adult size, and from Tarentola mauritanica by the huge pointed tubercles in distinct longitudinal rows along the sides. In T. mauritanica, the tubercles are arranged in closely-packed transverse series, and are subequal in size from vertebral to lateral rows, while T. albertschwartzi has only three greatly enlarged scale rows along the sides, with the dorsal tubercles much smaller than the laterals. From T. annularis, the new species is diagnosed by its conspicuously larger gular scales, more pointed dorsolateral tubercles, and larger caudal tubercles. (Sprackland & Swinney 1998) Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 3140 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details.
Comment	Conservation: This taxon is based on a single specimen presented in 1884 to the collection of the National Museums of Scotland; it is possibly extinct now. Abundance: only known from the type specimen (Meiri et al. 2017).
Etymology	The species is named for Albert Schwartz (1923-1992) whose decades of study of the West Indies `left behind a herpetological legacy for a single geographic region that is unlikely ever to be duplicated.
References	Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here Carranza, S., Arnold, E. Nicholas; Mateo, J. A. and L. F. López-Jurado 2000. Long-distance colonization and radiation in gekkonid lizards, Tarentola (Reptilia: Gekkonidae), revealed by mitochondrial DNA sequences. Proc. R. Soc. London B 267: 637-649 - 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 24 (2): 262-273 - get paper here Rösler, H. 2000. Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha). Gekkota 2: 28-153 Sprackland R G & G N Swinney 1998. A new species of giant gecko of the genus Tarentola (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Jamaica. Journal of Zoology 245, 73-78. - get paper here Wilson, Byron S. 2011. Conservation of Jamaican amphibians and reptiles. In: Hailey et al., eds, Conservation of Caribbean Island Herpetofaunas Volume 2: 273-310 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List Google images

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