Head pholidosis of giant lizards of the genus Gallotia (Boulenger, 1916)

SERGIO PALACIOS-GARCÍA; CAROLINA CASTILLO RUIZ; PENÉLOPE CRUZADO CABALLERO

Cuenca

Congreso; 4th International Meeting of Early-stage Researchers in Palaeontology​; 2019

he Canary Islands correspond to an archipelago of volcanic origin located in the northwest Africa. In these islands, there is an endemic group of lizards that belong to the genus Gallotia (Boulenger, 1916), which comprises seven extant and two extinct species. In this work the pholidosis of the skull of the giant species was studied: Gallotia stehlini (Schenkel, 1901) from Gran Canaria; G. simonyi (Steindachner, 1889) from El Hierro; G. bravoana (Hutterer, 1985) from La Gomera; and G. intermedia (Hernández et al., 2000) and G. goliath (Mertens, 1942) from Tenerife. The pholidosis of G. goliath, the extinct species, could be studied thanks to the mummified remains that were found in the volcanic tubes of Tenerife, where the temperature and humidity conditions perfectly preserved the scales. All these lizards have scales that help to differentiate between species. G. simonyi and G. goliath are the most similar species in number, size and position of the scales, while G. stehlini differs from the rest, which is consistent with previous studies. These results allow to recognize and differentiate between species of the same genus and will help us support the evolutionary trees made so far.