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The Kaieteurosaurus
The Kaieteurosaurus
Discovered in 2004 in the vicinity of the Kaieteur Falls was a strange yet unique lizard which was subsequently named Kaieteurosaurus hindsi. The discovery was made by Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Philippe Kok, Hemchandranauth Sambhu, Reuben Williams and Festus Marco on November 23 2004.
Kaieteurosaurus hindsi, or Hinds’ Kaieteur lizard, is a small terrestrial lizard (barely 10 centimeters in length) that belongs to the Gymnophthalmidae family. The suffix “saurus” meaning lizard, hence Kaieteurosaurus can literally be translated as “lizard of Kaieteur”.
The species name, hindsi, was dedicated to Guyana’s Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, who the discoverers said played an integral role in facilitating the research in the Kaieteur National Park.
The Gymnophthalmidae family currently includes less than 40 genera, distributed in temperate, subtropical and tropical areas from southern Mexico to the south of South-America.
The most important characteristic that distinguishes Kaieteurosaurus is without a doubt its very peculiar ventral scalation, formed by long, sharp, lanceolate scales, while most genera of the Gymnophthalmidae family have quadrangular ventral scales. Some gymnophthalmids have mucronate ventral scales, but never as sharp and lanceolate as seen in Kaieteurosaurus hindsi.
The head scalation and the tongue anatomy are equally particular. A long list of morphological characteristics makes Kaieteurosaurus clearly distinct from the other known Gymnophthalmidae.
Currently, only one specimen of this lizard has been collected and the institute is trying to obtain more specimens and tissue samples that will be used to determine the position of this animal within the Gymnophthalmidae family through molecular systematics. The small lizard has a cylindrical, slightly depressed body, long tail and is round in cross section, without longitudinal ridges.
It has an ear opening and it limbs well developed, with all digits clawed. Its Dorsal head scales are smooth with a single postmental scale followed by two pairs of large genials in contact with labials and a third pair, much smaller, separated from the labials. With its unique combination of characters the new genus is readily distinguishable from all other known South American gymnophthalmids.
In having hexagonal ventral scales that do not form longitudinal rows and the lingual plicae interrupted by a midsection of scale-like papillae, Kaieteurosaurus most closely resembles Ecpleopus from southeastern Brazil, but is distinctive in many ways, in particular in having a larger head.
Kaieteurosaurus could be confused with Leposoma of the scincoides group from the Brazilian Atlantic forests, but these species are distinctive mainly by the tongue morphology, in having keeled ventral scales (smooth in Kaieteurosaurus).
Kaieteurosaurus could also be confused with Arthrosaura but is easily distinguished, primarily by the tongue morphology, in having hexagonal ventral scales in transverse rows only (quadrangular ventral scales in transverse and longitudinal rows in Arthrosaura), in having smooth scales on the forelimbs (keeled in Arthrosaura), and in having a divided nasal (undivided in Arthrosaura).
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