Cyclura Nubila Caymanensis - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Lesser Caymans Iguana, Cyclura nubila caymanensis, is endemic to the islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. It is a subspecies of the Cuban Iguana. This subspecies has been introduced to Grand Cayman, where it has interbred with that island's native Blue Iguana, (Cyclura Lewisi).

The generic name (Cyclura) is derived from the Ancient Greek cyclos (κύκλος) meaning "circular" and ourá (οὐρά) meaning "tail", after the thick-ringed tail characteristic of all Cyclura. Its specific name, nubila, is Latin for "gray" but in this instance is a Latinized form of the name of John Edward Gray, the British zoologist who first described the Cuban Rock Iguana as a species in 1831 as opposed to the animal's base color. Its subspecific name Caymanensis refers to the island where it lives being a Latinized form of "Cayman".

Zoologists Thomas Barbour and Gladwyn Kingsley Noble first described the Lesser Caymans Iguana as a species in 1916. Chapman Grant, in a monograph published in 1940, formally described the Lesser Caymans Iguana for the first time as a subspecies: Cyclura macleayi caymanensis.

In 1975 Albert Schwartz and Thomas established the trinomial nomenclature, Cyclura nubila caymanensis for the Lesser Cayman Iguana. They maintained that this lizard was a subspecies of Cyclura nubila nubila commonly known as the Cuban Rock Iguana(the species from which it evolved and can breed with if placed together under artificial conditions).