Antiguan curly-tailed lizard

A reptile of disgusting appearance

A Mrs. Lanaghan (also Lanagan) provided in 1844 in Antigua and the Antiguans a description of a reptile that could be the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard. She described a ground-dwelling lizard that was “considerably larger” than those in trees. Along its body ran “longitudinal blood-red stripes” and it was “of disgusting appearance” with a “tail of extreme length,” so that the animal’s movements appeared snake-like.

In its mouth were “an infinite number of sharp teeth, bites are very venomous.” The animal held its prey with its front feet, “tears it to pieces with its teeth and then swallows it with much gusto with its red, long, slender tongue.”

The biologists Bruce Horwith and Kevel Lindsay compared this description in 1997 in Antigua – Barbuda – Redonda Biodiversity Profile with lizards currently existing on the Lesser Antilles. They concluded that none of them even remotely matched. While the lizards were similar in size, none possessed a red stripe and none moved its tail like a snake.

According to Horwith and Lindsay, Lanaghan’s description sounds like an animal from the genus of curly-tailed lizards (Leiocephalus). These are native to the Antilles and can grow up to 35 centimeters long; their tail is longer than their head-body length, which would explain the resemblance to a snake.

Since the description does not match any reptile living there, it is probably an extinct species such as the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard. Scientists found fossil remains of this species on the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, and the reptile researcher Richard Etheridge was the first to scientifically describe the species in 1964.

Antiguan curly-tailed lizard – fact sheet

scientific name	Leiocephalus cuneus
original range	Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles)
time of extinction	earliest in the 15th century
causes of extinction	animals introduced to the island
IUCN status	extinct

Cause and time of extinction unknown

If Lanaghan’s eyewitness account actually refers to the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard, this would also mean that the lizard species must have lived until at least 1844. However, there is disagreement on this point among researchers.

It is generally assumed that the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard went extinct at the earliest in the 15th century; probably with the colonization of the archipelago by Europeans.

Some researchers suspect that the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard could have been exterminated by the introduction of rats and mongooses. This also applies to many other reptile species of the Caribbean Islands, such as the Guadeloupe ameiva and possibly the Martinique ameiva. Mongooses, Asian predators, were brought to the islands to eradicate the rats that had been previously introduced there.

Supporting this theory is the fact that bones of rats introduced by Europeans were discovered among the remains found of the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard. This is noted by Gregory K. Pregill in Systematics of the West Indian Lizard Genus Leiocephalus (1992).

However, Leiocephalus species in the Caribbean can typically survive well in the presence of exotic, introduced predators, and the species are found on several large islands. This means they could potentially have survived long after the 15th century. This is according to a personal comment (2015) from the herpetologist Robert Powell to the conservation organization IUCN.

That the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard is extinct is beyond doubt. Robert Powell and Robert W. Henderson point out in their book Natural History of West Indian Reptiles and Amphibians (2009) that it was a very conspicuous animal species that lived on three well-populated islands of the Lesser Antilles and therefore would have been noticed.

Besides Mrs. Lanaghan’s report, there is also one from the botanist Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, who in 1654 in Histoire Générale Des Isles de S. Christophe, de la Guadeloupe reported on the behavior of the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard. This means the reptile species lived until the mid-17th century.

Antiguan curly-tailed lizard: One of the largest of its genus

The literature indicates that the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard was one of the largest animals within the genus Leiocephalus. Lanaghan also mentioned that the lizard was much larger than tree lizards, for example.

Michael Breuil assumes in his Histoire naturelle des Amphibiens et Reptiles terrestres de l’archipel Guadeloupéen (2002) that the species primarily inhabited coastal regions. And Du Tertre’s description suggests that it was a ground-dwelling lizard, which is also consistent with Lanaghan’s description. According to Du Tertre, the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard fed on the eggs of other lizards and turtles.

The Antiguan curly-tailed lizard was native to the Antillean islands of Antigua, Anguilla, and Guadeloupe. For modern times, there is no evidence that the Antiguan curly-tailed lizard also lived on the uninhabited island of Barbuda; however, fossil remains of the reptile have been found there.