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Anolis laevis (COPE, 1875)

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Higher TaxaAnolidae, Iguania, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Swordsman anole, Smooth Anole
S: Anolis espadachín 
SynonymScytomycterus laevis COPE 1876: 165
Anolis laevis — BOULENGER 1885: 56
Anolis laevis — BURT & BURT 1933: 17
Anolis laevis — BARBOUR 1934; 154
Anolis laevis — WILLIAMS 1979
Dactyloa laevis — NICHOLSON et al. 2012
Dactyloa laevis — NICHOLSON et al. 2018
Anolis laevis — AYALA-VARELA et al. 2026 
DistributionE Peru (San Martin)

Type locality: “between Moyabamba and Balsa Puerto on the river Huallaga in eastern Peru”  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: ANSP 11368, adult male
Other specimens: CORBIDI 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material. 
CommentSynonymy: Barbour 1934 placed laevis in the synonymy of transversalis (Williams 1979).

Known only from a few specimens and 3 localities (POE & YAÑEZ-MIRANDA 2008, Ayala-Varela et al. 2026).

Distribution: see map in Ayala-Varela et al. 2026: 525 (Fig. 5).

Species groups: Dactyloa punctata species group (fide NICHOLSON et al. 2012).

Abundance: only known from the type locality (Meiri et al. 2017). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin laevis, smooth; slippery, polished, plain. [“...Scales of the body smooth...”]. (from Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., May 2024) 
References
  • Ayala-Varela, F., Venegas, P.J., García-Ayachi, L.A. & Poe, S. 2026. Mythic lizard rediscovered: redescription of Anolis laevis Cope 1876 (Squamata: Anolidae) from recent collections in Peru. Zootaxa 5752 (4): 516–530 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1885. Catalogue of the lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 2, Second edition. London, xiii+497 pp. - get paper here
  • Cope, E.D. 1875. Report on the Reptiles brought by Professor James Orton from the middle and upper Amazon and western Peru. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia N.S. (2) 8: 159-183 [sometimes thought to be published 1876 but see Murphy et al. 2007 for clarification] - get paper here
  • Ineich, I., Koppetsch, T., & Böhme, W. 2022. Pinocchio lizards and other lizards bearing rostral appendages− the peculiar habitus of the draconine agamid Harpesaurus tricinctus with highlights on its ecological implications and convergence with its New World equivalent, the dactyloid Anolis proboscis. Salamandra 58(2): 123–138. - 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
  • MURPHY R. W., SMITH A. and NGO A. 2007. The versions of Cope's Batrachia and Reptilia of Costa Rica. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 7 (1): - get paper here
  • NICHOLSON, KIRSTEN E.; BRIAN I. CROTHER, CRAIG GUYER & JAY M. SAVAGE 2012. It is time for a new classification of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae). Zootaxa 3477: 1–108 - get paper here
  • NICHOLSON, KIRSTEN E.; BRIAN I. CROTHER, CRAIG GUYER & JAY M. SAVAGE 2018. Translating a clade based classification into one that is valid under the international code of zoological nomenclature: the case of the lizards of the family Dactyloidae (Order Squamata). Zootaxa 4461 (4): 573–586 - get paper here
  • Poe, S. 2013. 1986 Redux: New genera of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae) are unwarranted. Zootaxa 3626 (2): 295–299 - get paper here
  • Poe, Steven 2025. A Guide to the Anolis Lizards (Anoles) of Mainland Central and South America. Princeton University Press, 432 pp. - get paper here
  • Williams,E.E. 1979. South American Anoles: the species groups. 2. The proboscis anoles (Anolis laevis group). Breviora (449): 1-19 - get paper here
  • Yánez-Muñoz, Mario H.; Miguel A. Urgilés, Marco Altamirano B., Stalin R. Cáceres S. 2010. Redescripción de Anolis proboscis Peters & Orcés (Reptilia: Polychrotidae), con el descubrimiento de las hembras de la especie y comentarios sobre su distribución y taxonomía. Avances en Ciencias e Ingeniería, 2, 1-14 - get paper here
 
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