PACEA-UMR CNRS 5199, Université de Bordeaux, 33 615 Pessac, France. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeology, Kahlaische Straẞe 10, 07745 Jena, Germany..
Zootaxa. 2021 Feb 15;4927(3):zootaxa.4927.3.4. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4927.3.4.
Documenting recent extinction events against the backdrop of increasing human-induced environmental pressure is complicated by the lack of historical and subfossil evidence for most parts of the world. This paucity of data renders it particularly difficult to evaluate the human impact on fragile environments, such as small islands, that may have been heavily altered by historical human exploitation. Here we describe a new species of an extinct Leiocephalus lizard from Guadeloupe, Leiocephalus roquetus sp. nov. based on recent discoveries of both a previously undocumented historically taxidermy specimen and of a large assemblage of subfossil bone remains from La Désirade Island. This new species presents a primitive morphology compared to all extant species of its genus and provides evidence for the past existence of a Lesser Antillean clade of Leiocephalus lizards that was completely wiped out in the centuries following the European colonization of these islands. Our study demonstrates how paleontological approaches can help to better understand the history of human environmental impact as well as the degree of degradation of modern ecosystems.
在人类引起的环境压力不断增加的背景下记录最近的灭绝事件，由于世界上大多数地区缺乏历史和化石证据，这变得很复杂。这些数据的缺乏使得评估人类对脆弱环境（如历史上人类开发过度的小岛屿）的影响变得特别困难。在这里，我们描述了来自瓜德罗普岛的一种已灭绝的 Leiocephalus 蜥蜴的新物种，Leiocephalus roquetus sp. nov.，这是基于最近对以前未记录的历史标本和来自拉代斯德拉岛的大量化石骨骼遗骸的发现。与该属的所有现存物种相比，这种新物种具有原始的形态，为过去曾存在的一个小安的列斯群岛 Leiocephalus 蜥蜴的分支提供了证据，该分支在这些岛屿被欧洲殖民后的几个世纪里已被完全消灭。我们的研究表明，古生物学方法如何有助于更好地了解人类环境影响的历史以及现代生态系统的退化程度。
