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This is a list of amphibians and reptiles in the archipelago of Cuba. It includes 27 reptiles and 55 amphibians that are critically endangered. Many of these animals are threatened by loss of habitat and hunting.
This list includes both native and introduced (I) species.
The island is home to one terrestrial turtle, while marine species often come and go on the beaches.
The Cuban crocodile is found in the Zapata Swamp region and the Isla de la Juventud. The spectacled caiman is not native to the island and was introduced by pet traders.
Sphaerodactylus is a genus of geckos from the Americas that are distinguished from other Gekkota by their small size, by their round, rather than vertical, eye pupils, and by each digit terminating in a single, round adhesive pad or scale, from which their name is derived. All species in this genus are rather small, but two species, S. ariasae and S. parthenopion, are tiny, and – with a snout-vent length of about 1.6 cm (0.63 in) – the smallest reptiles in the world.
Leiocephalidae, also known as the curlytail lizards or curly-tailed lizards, is a family of iguanian lizards restricted to the West Indies. One of the defining features of these lizards is that their tail often curls over. They were previously regarded as members of the subfamily Leiocephalinae within the family Tropiduridae. There are presently 29 known species, all in the genus Leiocephalus.
Trinidad and Tobago are continental islands with a geologically very recent history of direct land bridge connection to South America. As a result, unlike most of the Caribbean Islands, Trinidad and Tobago supports a primarily South American flora and fauna and has greater diversity of plant and animal species than the Antilles. However, rates of endemism are lower than in the rest of the Caribbean because there has been less time for genetic isolation from mainland populations because of the history of land bridge connections and hence fewer opportunities for speciation, and so a greater proportion of the species in Trinidad and Tobago are also found on the South American mainland. Trinidad is nearer to mainland South America and has been directly connected to the mainland via land bridges more often and for longer periods than Tobago. This, as well as Trinidad's larger size and more varied topography and hydrology compared to that of Tobago allow greater species and ecosystem diversity on the former compared to that on the later of the islands.
The Barahona big-scaled sphaero, also known commonly as the Barahona big-scaled geckolet, is a species of lizard in the family Sphaerodactylidae. The species, which is a very small gecko, is endemic to the Dominican Republic.
In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Carl Linnaeus described the Amphibia as:
Animals that are distinguished by a body cold and generally naked; stern and expressive countenance; harsh voice; mostly lurid color; filthy odor; a few are furnished with a horrid poison; all have cartilaginous bones, slow circulation, exquisite sight and hearing, large pulmonary vessels, lobate liver, oblong thick stomach, and cystic, hepatic, and pancreatic ducts: they are deficient in diaphragm, do not transpire (sweat), can live a long time without food, are tenatious of life, and have the power of reproducing parts which have been destroyed or lost; some undergo a metamorphosis; some cast (shed) their skin; some appear to live promiscuously on land or in the water, and some are torpid during the winter.
Benjamin Shreve (1908–1985) was an American amateur herpetologist. He was from a wealthy Boston family of jewellers and worked at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology as a volunteer. He was trained by Arthur Loveridge to deal with materials from elsewhere than Africa. Shreve described many species from the West Indies together with Thomas Barbour. In these papers, Shreve is said to have done the "spadework" while Barbour wrote "florid" introductions.
Albert Schwartz was an American zoologist who worked extensively with the herpetofauna of Florida and the West Indies, and later with butterflies. One magazine article once dubbed him as one of the "Kings of West Indian Anole Taxonomy".
John Paul Richard Thomas is an American taxonomist and systematist, and retired professor of herpetology and evolution at University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. He described several species new to science, mostly amphibians and reptiles, from throughout the Caribbean islands including the common coquí, the national animal of Puerto Rico.
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