Gallotia auaritae Mateo, García Márquez, López Jurado & Barahona, 2001
La Palma giant lizard
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct (Fernández-Palacios et al., 2025)
Last record: Holocene (Fernández-Palacios et al., 2025)
An unconfirmed record from 2007 (Mínguez et al., 2007; Cruzado-Caballero et al., 2019)
Distribution & Habitat
La Palma, Canary Islands, off North Africa
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Mateo, J.A., García Márquez, M., López Jurado, L.F. and Barahona, F. (2001). Descripción del lagarto gigante de La Palma (Islas Canarias) a partir de restos subfósiles. Revista Española de Herpetología: 53-59.
Other references:
Afonso, O.M. and Mateo, J.A. 2003. Los lagartos gigantes canarios: conservación creativa de poblaciones mínimas. In: Jiménez, I. and Delibes, M. (eds), Al Borde de la Extinción: Integrando Ciencia, Política y Sociedad en la Recuperación de Especies Amenazadas., Evren, Valencia.
Arnold, E.N., Arribas, O. and Carranza, S. 2007. Systematics of the Palaearctic and Oriental lizards tribe Lacertini (Squamata: Lacertidae: Lacertinae), with descriptions of eight new genera. Zootaxa, 1430: 1-86.
Barahona, F., Evans, S.E., Mateo, J.A., Garcia-Márquez, M. and López-Jurado, L.F. 2000. Endemism, gigantism and extinction in island lizards: the genus Gallotia on the Canary Islands. J. Zool. (London): 373-388.
Richard P. Brown Oryx 42: 171-172
Cruzado-Caballero, Penélope et al. (2019). First nearly complete skull of Gallotia auaritae (lower-middle Pleistocene, Squamata, Gallotiinae) and a morphological phylogenetic analysis of the genus Gallotia. Scientific Reports 9: 16629.
Fernández-Palacios, José María, Fructuoso, Melania, Illera, Juan Carlos, Rando, Juan Carlos, de Nascimento, Lea, Fernández-Palacios, Enrique, Patiño, Jairo, Otto, Rüdiger, Castilla-Beltrán, Álvaro, González, Esther Martín, Orihuela-Rivero, Raúl, Alcover, Josep Antoni, Whittaker, Robert J. (2025). A synthesis of terrestrial species extinctions in the Macaronesian Islands and their correspondence with human occupancy. PNAS Nexus 4(8): pgaf215. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf215 [Supplementary data (.docx)]
Fontaine, B., Bouchet, P., Van Achterberg, K., Alonso-Zarazaga, M.A., Araujo, R., Asche, M., Aspöck, U. Audisio, P., Aukema, B., Bailly, N., Balsamo, M., Bank, R.A., Barnard, P., Belfiore, C., Bogdanowicz, W., Bongers, T., Boxshall, G., Burckhardt, D., Camicas, J.-L., Chylarecki, P., Crucitti, P., Deharveng,L., Dubois, A., Enghoff, H., Faubel, A., Fochetti, R., Gargominy, O., Gibson, D., Gibson, R., Soledad Gómez López, M., Goujet, D., Harvey, M.S., Heller, K.-G., Van Helsdingen, P., Hoch, H., De Jong, H., De Jong, Y., Karsholt, O., Los, W., Lundqvist, L., Magowski, W., Manconi, R., Martens, J. Massard, J.A., Massard-Geimer, G., Mcinnes, S.J., Mendes, L.F., Mey, E., Michelsen, V., Minelli, A., Nielsen, C., Nieto Nafría, J.M., Van Nieukerken, E.J., Noyes, J., Pape, T., Pohl, H., De Prins, W., Ramos, M., Ricci, C., Roselaar, C., Rota, E., Schmidt-Rhaesa, A., Segers, H., Zur Strassen, R., Szeptycki, A., Thibaud, J.-M., Thomas, A., Timm, T., Van Tol, J., Vervoort, W. and Willmann, R. (2007). The European Union’s 2010 target: Putting rare species in focus. Biological Conservation 139(1-2): 167-185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2007.06.012
Martin, Thomas E., Bennett, Gareth C., Fairbairn, Andrew J. and Mooers, A. Ø. (2023). ‘Lost’ taxa and their conservation implications. Animal Conservation 26(1): 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12788 [Appendix S2 (1617 taxa not seen >10 years); Appendix S3 (562 taxa not seen >50 years)]
Martín, Aurelio. (2009). The Loch Ness monster and La Palma giant lizard Gallotia auaritae: are they really extant? Oryx 43(1): 17.
Mateo Miras, J.A. 2008. Gallotia auaritae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T61501A12492768. Accessed on 18 September 2025.
Jose Antonio Mateo Miras, Iñigo Martínez-Solano. 2009. Gallotia auaritae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009: e.T61501A12492629. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2009.RLTS.T61501A12492629.en. Downloaded on 14 December 2015.
Miras, J.A.M. 2006. Gallotia auaritae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2006: e.T61501A12492556. Accessed on 18 September 2025.
Mínguez, L.E., Afonso, O.M., Pether, J. and Mateo, J.A. 2007. Evidencias de la posible supervivencia del lagarto gigante de La Palma. Boletín de la Asociación Herpetológica Española 18: 11-13.
Pleguezuelos, J.M., Márquez, R. and Lizana, M. 2002. Atlas y Libro Rojo de los Anfibios y Reptiles de España. Dirección General de la Conservación de la naturaleza-Associación Herpetológica Española., Madrid.
Regalado, Pedro Galán. (2015). Los Anfibios y Reptiles Extinguidos: Herpetofauna Desaparecida Desde el Año 1500. Monografías de la Universidade da Coruña 155: 1-509.
Sindaco, R. and Jeremčenko, V.K. 2008. The Reptiles of the Western Palearctic. 1. Annotated Checklist and Distributional atlas of the turtles, crocodiles, amphisbaenians and lizards of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. Edizioni Belvedere, Latina (Italy).
http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/13103/gallotia-auaritae