Tarentola albertschwartzi
| Tarentola albertschwartzi | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tarentola albertschwartzi | ||||||||||||
| Sprackland & Swinney , 1998 |
Tarentola albertschwartzi is a presumably extinct giant gecko that was endemic to Jamaica . The type epithet honors the American zoologist Albert Schwartz (1923–1992).
Tarentola albertschwartzi is only known from the holotype , a female, which was first presented in 1884 during a Jamaica exhibition in the Scottish National Museum. This giant gecko was the largest member of the Tarentola genus . The museum specimen has a head-body length of 137 mm and a tail length of 97 mm. It has a regenerated tail. Only the third and fourth toes are clawed and the first toe is reduced. The body is covered with some tubercles , which are arranged in rows and partly clearly keeled. The very strong head shows a wide temple region. The muzzle is blunt.
Nothing is known about the way of life of Tarentola albertschwartzi . The timing and cause of the extinction are also largely unknown. Rats, mongooses, and other predators are believed to have contributed to the extermination of these geckos.
literature
- Robert G. Sprackland, Geoffrey N. Swinney: A new species of giant gecko of the genus Tarentola (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Jamaica. In: Journal of the Zoological. Vol. 245, No. 1, 1998, ISSN 0022-5460 , pp. 73-78, doi : 10.1111 / j.1469-7998.1998.tb00073.x .