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Anolis roosevelti GRANT, 1931

IUCN Red List - Anolis roosevelti - Critically Endangered, CR
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Higher TaxaAnolidae, Iguania, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Virgin Islands Giant Anole, Culebra Giant Anole 
SynonymAnolis velifer REINHARDT & LÜTKEN 1863
Anolis roosevelti GRANT 1931: 219
Anolis roosevelti — SCHWARTZ & HENDERSON 1991: 327
Anolis roosevelti — MAYER 2011
Xiphosurus roosevelti — NICHOLSON et al. 2012
Xiphosurus roosevelti — NICHOLSON et al. 2018 
DistributionIsla Culebra, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands (British), Virgin Islands (US)

Type locality: Isla Culebra.

velifer: Vieques, Tortola, and St. John (only  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: MCZ 36136 (in catalogue as 36138) 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (870 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentFor illustrations see Grant, 1931; Dodd and Campbell, 1982.

Conservation: Anolis roosevelti is the only species of anole thought to have gone extinct in historical times, at least it has not been seen since 1932. The species is known from only 8 specimens. No photos of live specimens seem to exist (Losos in Anole Annals).

Species group: Xiphosurus cuvieri species group (fide NICHOLSON et al. 2012).

Abundance: Rare. This is one of the species called 'lost' and 'rediscovered' by Lindken et al. 2024, but actually never rediscovered (Westergaard 2024). 
EtymologyNamed after Major General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1887-1944), who fought in both world wars and was awarded America's highest decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt. 
References
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Dodd, C. K, Jr. and H. W. Campbell. 1982. Anolis roosevelti. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (300. - get paper here
  • Dodd, C. Kenneth, Jr. 1979. A bibliography of endangered and threatened amphibians and reptiles in the United States and its territories (conservation, distribution, natural history, status). Smithsonian Herp. Inf. Serv. (46): 1-35 - get paper here
  • Grant, C. 1931. A new species and two new sub-species of the genus Anolis. J. Dept. Agric. Puerto Rico 15: 219-222.
  • Grant, C. 1932. Herpetological notes from the Puerto Rico area. J. Dept. Agric. Puerto Rico 16 (1): 161-165
  • Kessler, Ava Gaa Ojeda 2010. The Culebra Island Giant Anole (Anolis roosevelti). Anolis Newsletter VI: 75 - get paper here
  • Kessler, Ava Gaa Ojeda 2010. Status of the Culebra Island Giant Anole (Anolis roosevelti). Herp. Cons. Biol. 5 (2) - 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
  • Mayer,G.C. 2011. A Brief History of Anoles in Research. Anole Annals 26 Aug 2011 - 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. 2004. Phylogeny of anoles. Herpetological Monographs 18: 37-89 - get paper here
  • Poe, S. 2013. 1986 Redux: New genera of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae) are unwarranted. Zootaxa 3626 (2): 295–299 - get paper here
  • Revell, Liam J.; D. Luke Mahler, R. Graham Reynolds and Graham J. Slater 2015. Placing cryptic, recently extinct, or hypothesized taxa into an ultrametric phylogeny using continuous character data: A case study with the lizard Anolis roosevelti. Evolution, 69: 1027–1035. doi: 10.1111/evo.12628 - get paper here
  • Schwartz, A. & Henderson, R.W. 1991. Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 720 pp.
  • Westergaard, Gitte 2024. Ghostly Presences: Giant Lizards and Conservation on Culebra Island. In: WEstergaard, Entire of Itself? Towards an Environmental History of Islands. White Horse Press, pp. 99-120 - get paper here
 
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