Puerto Rican biologist Alondra M. Díaz Lameiro, who led the study, announced this Saturday that a new reptile species has been found in Puerto Rico, the first of its kind on the island in more than 85 years.

The gecko is a mountain and sea gecko, also known as a crescent or tijo. This will be the tenth endemic reptile species identified in the Puerto Rico archipelago.

Díaz Lameiro, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Mayagüez Campus (UPR), named the new species Sphaerodactylus verdeluzicola.

The name was chosen to honor the allegorical melody “Verde Luz”, whose author Antonio (El Topo) Cabán Vale describes the beauty of the island’s mountains and sea, according to a UPR statement.

The finding was published this week in the prestigious scientific journal Ichthyology and Herpetology and represents the first reptilian species described for Puerto Rican fauna in more than 85 years.

“We’re very excited to add a species that hints at a new organism with potential for further research. It’s also an indication that there’s a lot to explore and there’s room to explore,” said the researcher.

The observation of the new species occurred in 2012 in the northwestern region of Rincón when Díaz Lameiro was a graduate student.

“We were looking for the species Sphaerodactylus grandisquamis (…) in Rincón and noticed this small animal that did not fit the descriptions of the other species,” he said.

New reptile species discovered in Puerto Rico

So they decided to search “further”, taking DNA samples and comparing them with other species until they concluded that they “had physical and genetic differences to characterize them as a new species.”

Scientists from UPR’s Mayagüez and Río Piedras campuses collaborated in this process. Also from Universidad Central del Caribe, Oakland University, Marquette University, and Sam Houston State University, among others.

“It was an effort with a group of people who contributed scientifically from their fields of expertise, and that’s how we created a paper with very detailed descriptions of the species,” said Díaz Lameiro.

The researcher later added that another population of this reptilian species was discovered in Utuado (the center of the island) in 2016, and the plan is to look for more populations.

Their quest is a challenge, as they are one inch long and have a brown color that camouflages themselves very well in nature.

“We have an idea of ​​how the species works, but we don’t know the specific details of how it reproduces, how many eggs it lays, its behavior and physiology,” said the biologist.