Two herpetologists, Dr Theodore Papenfuss of the University of California at Berkeley and Dr James Parham of California State University in Fullerton, have found four new species of legless lizards in California, the United States.
The newly discovered legless lizard Anniella grinnelli. Image credit: Alex Krohn.
“Legless lizards, represented by more than 200 species worldwide, are well-adapted to life in loose soil,” Dr Papenfuss explained.
“Millions of years ago, lizards on five continents independently lost their limbs in order to burrow more quickly into sand or soil, wriggling like snakes. Some still have vestigial legs. Though up to eight inches in length, the creatures are seldom seen because they live mostly underground, eating insects and larvae, and may spend their lives within an area the size of a dining table. Most are discovered in moist areas when people overturn logs or rocks.”
The discoveries, reported in the journal Breviora, raise the number of California legless lizard species from one to five.
The herpetologists named the new lizards – Anniella grinnelli, A. campi, A. alexanderae, and A. stebbinsi – after four legendary scientists from the University of California at Berkeley: museum founder Joseph Grinnell, paleontologist Charles Camp, philanthropist and amateur scientist Annie Alexander and herpetologist Robert C. Stebbins, at 98 the only one of the group still alive.
Anniella alexanderae, upper left: dorsal and ventral view showing the diagnostic gray coloration. Anniella campi, upper right: dorsal view and detail showing diagnostic double dark lateral stripes. Anniella grinnelli, lower left: ventral view showing diagnostic purple coloration and dorsal view. Anniella stebbinsi, lower right: dorsal and ventral view. Center: comparison of ventral coloration from three of the new species: A. grinnelli, left, A. alexanderae, center, and A. stebbinsi. Image credit: Theodore Papenfuss / James Parham.
“These are animals that have existed in the San Joaquin Valley, separate from any other species, for millions of years, completely unknown. If you want to preserve biodiversity, it is the really distinct species like these that you want to preserve,” Dr Parham said.
For the past 15 years, Dr Papenfuss and Dr Parham have scoured California for new species, suspecting that the fairly common California legless lizard, Anniella pulchra, the only legless lizard in the U.S. West, had at least some relatives.
They discovered one new species – yellow-bellied like its common cousin – under leaf litter in protected dunes west of Los Angeles International Airport. They named that species A. stebbinsi, because Stebbins grew up and developed an early interest in natural history in the nearby Santa Monica Mountains.
Because many sandy, loamy areas, including dunes and desert areas, offer little cover for lizards if they emerge, Dr Papenfuss distributed thousands of pieces of cardboard throughout the state in areas likely to host the lizard. He returned year after year to see if lizards were using the moist, cool areas under the cardboard as resting or hunting grounds. This technique turned up three other new species in the Central Valley.
This map shows the traditional distribution of Anniella pulchra and the hypothesized distribution of the newly described species. Image credit: Theodore Papenfuss / James Parham.
Interestingly, all these species had been collected before and were in collections around California, but when preserved in alcohol, the lizards lose their distinctive color and look identical.
The scientists identified the species through genetic profiling, but they subsequently found ways to distinguish them from one another via belly color, number and arrangement of scales, and number of vertebrae.
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Bibliographic information: Theodore J. Papenfuss and James F. Parham. 2013. Four New Species of California Legless Lizards (Anniella). Breviora 536: 1-17; doi: 10.3099/MCZ10.1
