''Sphaerodactylus ariasae'', commonly called the Jaragua sphaero or the Jaragua dwarf gecko, is the smallest

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of lizard in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Sphaerodactylidae The Sphaerodactylidae are a Family (biology), family of geckos (Gekkota) distributed in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, as well as in Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and into Central Asia. The fam ...

Description

''Sphaerodactylus ariasae'' is the world's smallest known reptile. The second-smallest is '' S. parthenopion'', native to the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

. The Jaragua sphaero measures 14–18 mm (0.55–0.71 in) from the snout to the base of the tail and can fit on a US 25-cent coin. It has an average weight of 0.13 g (0.0045 oz).

Geographic range

The geographic

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

of ''S. ariasae'' is believed to be limited to

Jaragua National Park Jaragua National Park () is a Dominican national park located in Pedernales Province, in the extreme southwest of the Dominican Republic. Jaragua has a total area of 1,374 km² (905 km² of which are offshore marine habitats), the largest such pro ...

, in the southernmost tip of the Barahona Peninsula, in the extreme southwest of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

and nearby forested

Beata Island Beata Island () is a small island on the Caribbean Sea, located southwest from Cape Beata. Some southwest of it lies the smaller Alto Velo Island. It is politically part of the Dominican Republic, and is roughly triangle-shaped and fairly flat ...

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

Habitat

The preferred natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

of ''S. ariasae'' is the

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

of the forest floor of dry forests with limestone substratum. File:Beata island dry forests P5210593.jpg, Habitat of ''S. ariasae'' in Beata island. Large trees grow on certain parts of the island, including sinkholes, which are surrounded by xeric scrub. File:Beata island karst understory P5210597.jpg, Microhabitat of ''S. ariasae'' in Beata island, consisting of patches of leaf litter deposited over karstified limestone.

Reproduction

''S. ariasae'' is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

Taxonomy

''S. ariasae'' was first described by Blair Hedges, a

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biol ...

, and

Richard Thomas Richard Thomas or Dick Thomas may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Dick Thomas (singer) (1915–2003), American singing cowboy and actor * Richard Thomas (actor) (born 1951), American actor * Richard Thomas (author) (born 1967), America ...

, a

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

biologist, in the December 2001 issue of the ''

Caribbean Journal of Science The ''Caribbean Journal of Science'' is a biannual peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal publishing articles, research notes, and book reviews related to science in the Caribbean, with an emphasis on botany, zoology, ecology, conservation bi ...

''.

Etymology

The Jaragua sphaero's

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

was chosen in honor of

herpetologist Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

Yvonne Arias, the leader of the Dominican conservation organization Grupo Jaragua, which was instrumental in securing the environmental protection of Jaragua National Park.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Sphaerodactylus ariasae'', p. 11).

References

External links

*
National Geographic: Smallest Known Lizard Found in CaribbeanAt the Lower Size Limit in Aminote Vertebrates: A New Diminutive Lizard from the West Indies
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1938610 A Lizards of the Caribbean Endemic fauna of the Dominican Republic Reptiles of the Dominican Republic Reptiles described in 2001 Taxa named by Stephen Blair Hedges Taxa named by Richard Thomas (herpetologist)