Eastwood's Long-tailed Seps

The Eastwood scourge Plated Lizard ( Tetradactylus eastwoodae ) is a presumably extinct lizard of the genus scourge Schildechsen ( Tetradactylus ). The specific epithet honors the South African biologist Audrey Eastwood, who in 1912 collected the holotype.

Features

The head-body length of the holotype is 64 mm and the tail length of 126 mm. The top is olive brown. The back and tail are colored or characterized by marked indistinct dark longitudinal lines, lines or spots. The underside is light gray-brown. The upper head has dark spots. The body is serpentine. The limbs are very small and the toes are bekrallt. The 5 mm long forelimbs are three-toed. The average toe is the longest, the internal toe is longer than the outer tiny. The Hintergließmaßen are 6.5 mm longer than the forelimbs and zweizehig. The inner toe is tiny. The dorsal scales are strongly keeled and grooved. 12 they are arranged in longitudinal rows and in transverse rows 67 to 70. The ventral scales are divided into 6-8 longitudinal rows and in about 50 transverse rows. The tail is partially renewed.

Occurrence and habitat

The Eastwood scourge Plated Lizard was in Bush Wood Forest Reserve in the Limpopo Province in northern South Africa endemic. She lived in open montane grasslands.

Extinction

The Eastwood scourge Plated Lizard is known only from two specimens collected in 1912 and 1928 and now preserved in the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria. The grassland was destroyed by fire and reforested the area with pine trees.