Cynisca williamsi GANS, 1987

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Higher Taxa	Amphisbaenidae, Amphisbaenia, Lacertoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names
Synonym	Cynisca williamsi GANS 1987: 67 Cynisca williamsi — GANS 2005: 29
Distribution	Ghana Type locality: Wenchi, about 60 mi north and slightly east of Kumasi, Ghana.
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: AMNH 130339.
Diagnosis	DIAGNOSIS: A short, slender, pointed-headed amphisbaenian. A large rostral in wide contact with the prefrontals and consequently widely exposed in dorsal view. Two preocular supralabials, nasal, preocular, prefrontal, and ocular discrete. A median azygous shield. Very large and distinct frontals, parietals, and occipitals. Very large postocular supralabial, kept from contact with frontal by large postocular which also extends over anterior portion of postsupralabial, the more posterior portion covered by a small rectangular temporal. Snout generally pointed. 3 supralabials and 2 infralabials. First infralabials enormous, much wider and substantially longer than mental plus discrete postmental. Two rows of postgenials (4, 5); the latter between the short malars. 218 body annuli; 14 caudal annuli. Midbody segments, 16 dorsal, 12-13 ventral. Median ventral segments enlarged, paired. 6 round precloacal pores. A short tail lacking autotomy, and with the distal surface terminating in an oblique, posteriorly facing shield fringed with a ring of projecting rounded cones. Internally, the shield is underlain by a calcified plate that seems associated with the terminal caudal vertebrae.
Comment	Abundance: 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.
Etymology	Named after Ernest E. Williams (1914-1998), American herpetologist.
References	Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here Gans C 1987. Studies on amphisbaenians (Reptilia). 7. The small round-headed species (Cynisca) from western Africa. American Museum Novitates (2896): 1-84 - get paper here Gans, C. 2005. CHECKLIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE AMPHISBAENIA OF THE WORLD. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 289: 1-130 - get paper here Gans, Carl 2000. Obituaries: Ernest Edward Williams 1914-1998. Herpetological Review 31 (1): 10-11 - get paper here 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
External links	IUCN Red List Google images

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