Four New Species of Legless Lizards Discovered in California

Four new species of legless lizards were discovered by a scientist from California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). These genetically distinct species are the California legless lizards or Anniella pulchra.

The finding has been published in Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology's peer-reviewed journal, Breviora.

Researcher James Parham, discovered the species along with a colleague."This is an exciting discovery to science," Parham stated in a press release. These species are rarely seen and usually live underground, hence special search methods were used by the researchers to find these species.

"This is the first time that so many new species of lizards have been described from California at one time, making this an unprecedented herpetological discovery for the state. These discoveries illustrate how new species can still be discovered, despite being found in some heavily compromised urban areas," Parham added.

Theodore J. Papenfuss, a research scientist at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley was Prahm's co-author in this study. Papenfuss has been studying the California legless lizard since 1998.

Before these four species of lizards were unearthed only one species of legless lizards was known. This species has a distinct yellow belly. The newly discovered species have purple or silver bellies.

"The main differences among the new species are determined from their DNA, which shows that these species have been separated from each other for millions of years," said Parham.

Parham has been involved in this research effort since 1999 .The lizards' have been named Anniella grinnelli for Joseph Grinnell (1877-1939), Anniella alexanderae for Annie Montague Alexander (1867-1950), Anniella campi for Charles Lewis Camp (1893-1974) and Anniella stebbinsi for Robert Cyril Stebbins, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of zoology. The names honor California's natural historians who contributed in the study of the state's vertebrate biodiversity.

These Anniella are the only species of legless lizards in the U.S. They look similar to small snakes and have a pencil-like thickness and grow 8-12 inches in length.

Their diet consists of insects and larvae. Globally above 200 species of legless lizards exist. These lizards have characteristics such as lack of broad belly scales, possessing eyelids and external ears and/ or a very long tail and lack a forked tongue. These features differentiate them from snakes.

Parham says the species might disappear due to loss of habitat to urbanization and other human activities like usage of land for mining oil and gas and agriculture. These lizards are regarded as a "species of special concern" by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"Since these species are new to science and because they are so hard to find, and their status and geographic ranges are not well defined, much more work is needed to see where these species exist and what their conservation status should be," Parham concluded.