Anniella pulchra (Northern California Legless Lizard)
Credit: Ian Wang
about the species
The California Legless lizard represents a set of five closely related species (and two subspecies) of legless lizards that together constitute an ecological and geographical replacement series of relatively wide-ranging and extreme narrow endemic taxa. The group has a reasonably wide range in coastal California, the San Joaquin desert and southern Sierra Nevada, providing a rich set of very localized dryland endemics and more widespread taxa.
why species was selected
All six taxa are listed as Species of Special Concern by the state of California. All of these lizards are habitat specialists on patchy, sandy habitat and have lost a great deal of habitat to agriculture and coastal development. Genomic resources for these species can also help in studies on the evolution of limb loss and morphological restructuring in vertebrates.
