''Spondylurus powelli'', the Anguilla Bank skink, is a species of lizard belonging to 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 ...

Scincidae, the skinks. This species is found on some islands in the northern

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

, the main ones being

Anguilla Anguilla is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Sa ...

and

Saint Barthélemy Saint Barthélemy, officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, also known as St. Barts (English) or St. Barth (French), is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. The island lies about southeast of the island ...

, but it is not found on the main island of

Saint Martin Saint Martin may refer to: People * Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316–397), Bishop of Tours, France * Saint Martin of Braga (c. 520–580), archbishop of Bracara Augusta in Gallaecia (now Braga in Portugal) * Pope Martin I (c. 595–655), bishop of R ...

Taxonomy

''Spondylurus powelli'' was first formally described in 2012 by the American

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

s S. Blair Hedges and Caitlin Conn with its type locality given as Shannon Hill, north of Sandy Ground, Anguilla, the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

being collected in 1963 by James D. "Skip" Lazell. Hedges and Conn also mention

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

s collected on Anguilla and St. Barts. This species, and '' S. martinae'', of the island of Saint Martin. form the ''S. martinae''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

within the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Spondylurus ''Spondylurus'' is a genus of lizards in the family Scincidae. The genus ''Spondylurus'', vernacularly known as the Antillean four-lined skinks, is a neotropical skink taxon including many species. Description Species in the genus ''Spondyluru ...

'', which is classified in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Mabuyinae Mabuyinae is a subfamily of lizards, commonly known as skinks, within the family Scincidae. The genera in this subfamily were previously found to belong the '' Mabuya'' group in the large subfamily Lygosominae. They have a pantropical distri ...

of the

skink Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...

family Scincidae.

Etymology

''Spondylurus powelli'' is a member of the genus ''Spondylurus''. This name was coined by the Austrian

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Leopold Fitzinger Leopold Joseph Franz Johann Fitzinger (13 April 1802 – 20 September 1884) was an Austrian zoologist. Fitzinger was born in Vienna and studied botany at the University of Vienna under Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin. He worked at the Vienna Naturhis ...

, but he did not explain its etymology. Hedges and Conn state that it appears to be derived from the Latin ''Spondylos'', Greek for "

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

", which may be an allusion to the obvious stripe along the miidle of the back of '' S. sloanii'', its

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, and most of the other species in this genus. The

specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the final ...

name honours

Robert Powell Robert Thomas Powell ( ; born 1 June 1944) is an English actor who is known for the title roles in '' Mahler'' (1974) and '' Jesus of Nazareth'' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978) ...

, an American

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 ...

, in recognition of his contributions to the herpetology of the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

Description

''Spondylurus powelli'' has a maximum snout-vent length of in males and in females. It has a pale stripe along the middle of the back, and dark stripes either side of that as well as along the flanks, and pale feet.

Distribution and habitat

''Spondylurus powelli'' is found in the islands of the Anguilla Bank, with populations on Anguilla and Saint Barthélemy, it is absent from Saint Martin, but in 2017 a population was found on

Île Tintamarre Île Tintamarre, also known as Flat Island, is a small island with an area of approximately . It is located in the Caribbean Sea, about from the island of Saint Martin, and is administered as part of the French overseas collectivity of Saint ...

, an uninhabited island which is part of the French

Collectivity of Saint Martin The Collectivity of Saint Martin (), commonly known as simply Saint Martin (, ), is an overseas collectivity of France in the West Indies in the Caribbean, on the northern half of the Saint Martin (island), island of Saint Martin, as well as so ...

and which is less than to the northeast of Saint Martin. There is also a population of skinks on Dog Island off Anguilla which have been tentatively identified as this species. These skinks have been found in rock-built walls on Anguilla and Tentamarre, while on Saint Barthélemy they have been found in sunny locations on

cacti A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

and in tall grass, and occasionally in houses.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3493739 Spondylurus Reptiles described in 2012 Reptiles of the Caribbean Endemic fauna of the Caribbean Taxa named by Stephen Blair Hedges Taxa named by Caitlin E. Conn