The Tenerife speckled lizard (''Gallotia intermedia'') is a recently discovered

lacertid The Lacertidae are the family of the wall lizards, true lizards, or sometimes simply lacertas, which are native to Afro-Eurasia. It is a diverse family with at about 360 species in 39 genera. They represent the dominant group of reptiles found i ...

(wall

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 ...

)

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 ...

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. It is the smallest member of the

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

containing the western islands' giant species. It was discovered in 1996 by biologist

Efraín Hernández Efraín is a masculine Spanish given name, a cognate of Ephraim. Notable people with the name include: * Efrain Chacurian (1924–2019), Argentine-born naturalised American soccer player * Efraín Cortés (born 1984), Colombian football defender * ...

in the

Macizo de Teno The Teno massif () is one of three volcanic formations that gave rise to Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. It is located in the northwestern part of the island between the towns of Santiago del Teide, Los Silos, El Tanque and Buenavista del Nor ...

in the extreme northwest of Tenerife. Although it is believed that the species was once widespread throughout much of the island, nowadays it is only known from a small area of coastline in the extreme west of the island, and also from Montana de Guaza in the extreme south. The total number of animals in the northwestern distribution area is 500 (estimated in 2008), in 40 isolated populations along altogether 9 km of coastline. In the south, there are about 100 animals. The main threat to this lizard is predation by

feral A feral (; ) animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in som ...

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s and, to a lesser degree, by

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

s. The lizards are increasing in number since the turn of the century as a result of control of introduced

mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...

Notes

References

Further reading