Tuesday, February 14, 2012

[Herpetology • 2009] Pantepuisaurus rodriguesi • Lizard in the clouds: a new highland genus and species of Gymnophthalmidae (Reptilia: Squamata) from Maringma tepui, western Guyana



Abstract
A new genus is erected for Pantepuisaurus rodriguesi gen. nov. sp. nov., collected at 2080 m elevation on Mount Maringma, a sandstone flat-topped table mountain (tepui) located in the eastern Pakaraima Mountains, at the Guyana - Brazil border. The new genus mainly differs from all other known gymnophthalmids by the following combination of characters: distinctive ear opening and moveable eyelids, limbs pentadactyl with all digits clawed, prefrontals present, interparietal and parietals forming a jagged, irregular posterior margin, three pairs of genials, second pair of genials in contact with only one infralabial, dorsal scales hexagonal, keeled, in transverse rows only, ventral scales imbricate, hexagonal, mucronate, broadly keeled, in transverse rows only, and hemipenis weakly bilobed with series of curved transverse plicae bearing mineralized spicules.

Key words: Pantepuisaurus rodriguesi gen. nov. sp. nov., endemism, Guiana Shield, microteiid, Pantepui, taxonomy, tepuis

Philippe J. R. Kok. 2009. Lizard in the clouds: a new highland genus and species of Gymnophthalmidae (Reptilia: Squamata) from Maringma tepui, western Guyana. Zootaxa 1992: 53-67

Another new lizard genus!