The Guadeloupe ameiva (''Pholidoscelis cineraceus'') was a species of
Teiidae
Teiidae is a family of lacertoidean lizards native to the Americas. Members of this family are generally known as whiptails or racerunners; however, tegus also belong to this family. Teiidae is sister to the Gymnophthalmidae, Gymnopthalmidae, and ...
lizard
Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...
s that was
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
. It is known from specimens collected by early European explorers. The fossil record shows that it once ranged across Guadeloupe,
Marie-Galante
Marie-Galante (, or ) is one of the dependencies of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. Marie-Galante has a land area of . It had 11,528 inhabitants at the start of 2013, but by the start of 2018 the total was officially estimated to ...
, and
ÃŽles des Saintes
The Îles des Saintes (; ), also known as Les Saintes (, ), is a group of small islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. It is part of the Canton of Trois-Rivières and is divided into two communes: Terre- ...
, but in most recent times it was restricted to Grand Ilet, just offshore of
Petit-Bourg
Petit-Bourg (; , ) is the seventh-largest Communes of France, commune in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe. It is located on the east side of the island of Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, and is part of the metropolitan area of Pointe- ...
. It was last recorded in 1914. Its extinction likely occurred when this area was decimated by a hurricane in 1928. The Guadeloupe ameiva was reported as a ground-dwelling lizard. It fed on plants and carrion (including dead individuals of its species).
Taxonomy
The Guadeloupe ameiva described in 1915 as ''Ameiva cineracea''. The type locality is Grand Ilet offshore of Petit-Bourg on the east coast of Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. In 2016, the species was moved to ''
Pholidoscelis
Pholidoscelis is a genus of lizards that belongs to the Family (biology), family Teiidae. All species are endemic to the West Indies.
Classification
Listed alphabetically.genetic sequencing and
phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...