La Gomera Giant Lizard - Taxonomy and Systematics

Taxonomy and Systematics

In his scientific description, the German zoologist R. Hutterer referred the subfossil remains from La Gomera to two subspecies of Gallotia simonyi with the differences being size related. He named these Gallotia simonyi bravoana and Gallotia simonyi gomerana. Bischoff (1998) synonymized them to a single taxon.

Barbadillo et al. (1999) decided for bravoana when they elevated the taxon to species rank. Nogales et al. (2001) concurred as regards species status, but used Gallotia gomerana. Following the ruling of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, gomerana is a junior synonym or bravoana (Miras & Pérez-Mellado 2005). It is not unequivocally accepted that it does constitute a distinct species, however (e.g. Bischoff 2000); in all likelihood, G. simonyi is its closest living relative (Maca-Meyer et al. 2003).