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Anniella alexanderae PAPENFUSS & PARHAM, 2013

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Higher TaxaAnguidae (Anniellinae),
Diploglossa, Anguimorpha, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Temblor Legless Lizard 
SynonymAnniella alexanderae PAPENFUSS & PARHAM 2013
Anniella pulchra lineage B — PARHAM & PAPENFUSS 2009 
DistributionUSA (California)

Type locality: 35.2090°N, 119.5672°W (380 m elevation, Shale Rd., 1.3 km S (by road) junction with Hwy. 33, Kern County, California, USA.  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesHolotype: MVZ 250570, an adult male, collected on February 21, 2005, by Theodore J. Papenfuss and James F. Parham. Paratypes. CAS 238588, an adult male from 35.2101°N, 119.5670°W (375 m elev.; Figs. 1, 4), Shale Rd., 1.3 km S by road of the junction with Hwy. 33, Kern County, California, U.S.A., collected on October 2, 2007, by Theodore J. Papenfuss; MCZ R- 189386 and MVZ 267237, both adult males from 35.2092°N, 119.5671°W (413 m elev.; Figs. 1, 4), Shale Rd. 1.3. km S by road of the junction with Hwy. 33 (Figs. 1, 4), Kern County, California, U.S.A., collected on April 18, 2010, by Theodore J. Papenfuss. MVZ 250549 (Fig. 3), an adult male from 35.2090°N, 119.5666°W (380 m elev.; Figs. 1, 4), Shale Rd. 1.3. km S by road of the junction with Hwy. 33, Kern County, California, U.S.A., collected on October 21, 2005, by Theodore J. Papenfuss; MVZ 257720 (Fig. 3), an adult, not sexed, from 35.2090°N, 119.5666°W, (380 m elev.; Figs. 1, 4), Shale Rd., 1.3 km S by road of the junction with Hwy. 33, Kern County, California, U.S.A., collected April 2, 2007, by Theodore J. Papenfuss. Figures in PAPENFUSS & PARHAM 2013. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Distinguished from all other species of the A. pulchra complex by a unique ventral coloration of Light Gray (5Y 7/1, RGB #D3D3D3) that is continuous from the insertion of the lower jaw to the end of the tail. This coloration is present in all paratypes and referred specimens. It is further distinguished from A. pulchra, Anniella stebbinsi, and Anniella campi by its higher vertebral count (Fig. 5) and from all species of the complex by its higher dorsal scale count (Tables 1, 2). Anniella alexanderae shows a maximum mitochondrial sequence divergence (for ND2, see Materials and Methods) from A. pulchra of 8.0%, from A. grinnelli of 6.0%, from A. campi of 4.9%, and from A. stebbinsi of 4.9% (Parham and Papenfuss, 2009). 
CommentAbundance: only known from its original description (Meiri et al. 2017). 
EtymologyThis species is named after the naturalist Annie Montague Alexander (1867– 1950; Fig. 6), who collected thousands of botanical, paleontological, and zoological specimens from western North America and provided intellectual support and crucial endowments for both the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley (Stein, 2001). 
References
  • 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
  • Papenfuss, Theodore J. and James F. Parham 2013. Four New Species of California Legless Lizards (Anniella). Breviora 536: 1-17 - get paper here
  • Wogan, Guinevere O.U.; Julie Kapelke, Kevin A. Feldheim, Theodore J. Papenfuss, Rauri C.K. Bowie 2015. Isolation and characterization of nine tetranucleoide microsatellite loci for the secretive limbless lizards of the genus Anniella (Anguidae). Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 62: 155-158 - get paper here
 
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