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Urocotyledon rasmusseni BAUER & MENEGON, 2006

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Higher TaxaGekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Rasmussen's Gecko 
SynonymUrocotyledon rasmusseni BAUER & MENEGON 2006
Urocotyledon rasmusseni — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 126 
DistributionTanzania (Udzungwa Mountains)

Type locality: Tanzania, Iringa Province, Udzungwa Mountains, Mbatwa Ranger Post, Udzungwa Mountains National Park (7°35’44”S, 36°37’35”E), 1188 m elevation.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: MTSN 8224, adult female, Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali; 15 September 2004. Coll. Michele Menegon. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A small Urocotyledon; Urocotyledon rasmusseni may be distinguished from all other members of the genus on the basis of: a lack of enlarged postmental scales (present in U. wolterstorffi and U. inexpectata), presence of denticulate ventrolateral tail mar- gins (absent in U. wolterstorffi and U. inexpectata), dermal fold or web on posterior face of hind limb absent (present in U. palmata), four undivided lamellae under fourth toe (versus 7- 12 in all other species; Stejneger 189; Tornier 1900; Müller 1909; Loveridge 1947; Spawls et al. 2002) and rostral cleft present (absent in all other species; contra Loveridge 1947). It also differs in color pattern from all other species (see Müller 1910; Perret 196, fig. 2, Spawls et al. 2002, fig. p. 119; Branch 2005, fig. p. 105). Urocotyledon rassmuseni may be more specif- ically differentiated from U. wolterstorffi, its only East African mainland congener, in having much smaller claws, a reduced number of transverse lamellae under the digits (4 under digit IV of pes versus 8-12; Loveridge 1959; Spawls et al. 2002), a convex (versus concave) snout profile, granular scales on the dorsal sur- face of the digits, above the enlarged terminal scansors (versus smooth, flattened scales), a dorsal pattern of longitudinally oriented whitish-grey diamonds or chevrons (versus transverse whitish bands or series of spots, see Spawls et al. 2002, fig. p. 119; Branch 2005, fig. p. 105), and a pale coppery-beige iris (ver- sus dark orange fide Spawls et al. 2002) [from BAUER & MENEGON 2005]. 
CommentAbundance: 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. 
Etymologynamed after Jens Bødtker Rasmussen of the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen (1947-2005). 
References
  • Bauer A. & M. Menegon 2006. A new species of Prehensile-tailed Gecko, Urocotyledon (Squamata: Gekkonidae), from the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. African Journal of Herpetology 55 (1): 13-22. - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - 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
  • Loveridge, A. 1947. Revision of the African lizards of the family Gekkondiae. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 98: 1-469 - 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
  • Rovero, F., Menegon, M., Fjeldså, J., Collett, L., Doggart, N., Leonard, C., Norton, G., Owen, N., Perkin, A., Spitale, D., Ahrends, A., Burgess, N. D. 2014. Targeted vertebrate surveys enhance the faunal importance and improve explanatory models within the Eastern Arc Mountains of Kenya and Tanzania. Diversity and Distributions. doi: 10.1111/ddi.12246 - get paper here
  • Spawls, Steve; Kim Howell, Harald Hinkel, Michele Menegon 2018. Field Guide to East African Reptiles. Bloomsbury, 624 pp. - get paper here
 
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