AMBLYRHYNCHUS CRISTATUS, 2017

AMBLYRHYNCHUS CRISTATUS

GODZILLA SUBSP. NOV.

( FIGS 5S, 7, 10)

LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7039C66A-09BE-4EC7-BF4D-0089533706C5

Holotype: VCCDRS 2967, coll. by A. Macleod in March 2013, Galápagos archipelago, San Cristóbal island, Salinas colony (at Punta Pitt, SRS), at geographical coordinates (decimal format) 0.697247S, 89.27084W. No paratypes. GoogleMaps

Specimens examined (N = 1 + 113): San Cristóbal: VCCDRS 2967 (holotype), Punta Pitt. Morphological characters of 113 specimens have also been examined in life from photographs .

Etymology: The subspecific epithet refers to the fictional saurian monster from the eponym movie franchise created by Tomoyuki Tanaka (IMDb, 2016). Explicitly mentioned in the title sequence of the 1990s American remake ( Emmerich, 1998), the physical appearance and swimming behaviour of marine iguanas were a significant source of inspiration to the creature´s designer (Patrick Tatopoulos, personal communication). The name is an invariable noun in apposition.

Geographic distribution: Northern (north-eastern) part of San Cristóbal and the satellite islets off the northern coast of San Cristóbal ( Fig. 8).

Diagnostic description: Amblyrhynchus cristatus godzilla subsp. nov. is a medium-sized subspecies of marine iguana (mean SVL 280 mm, up to a maximum of 400 mm). Mature males have a well-developed crest of spines and relatively pronounced conical supracephalic scales. In life, the males are dark grey or blackish dorsally. Dark ochre or brownish dots may align and merge to each other to form a couple of barely discernable and irregular transversal stripes along the body. More specifically, this subspecies is also characterized by mental scales most often (91%) separated (see also Figs 4, 5S, Table 1).

Description of the holotype: VCCDRS 2967 ( Fig. 10). Incomplete and dismantled skeleton collected in a fissure of lava rock, consisting in (1) ten cranial elements: premaxilla with a single remaining tooth attached (32.1 mm long), right (toothless) dentary, left ectopterygoid, left angular, right jugal, neurocranium and two incomplete remains of the left (articular and suprarticular, 47.5 mm long in total) and right – articular – mandibulae, (2) three scapular elements: right scapulocoracoid, interclavicle and right clavicle, (3) a single pelvic element: left hemipelvis, (4) five unidentified relatively short long bones (ranging from 8.5 to 42.1 mm), (5) 12 unidentified ribs (length in linear distance measuring from 38.4 to 57.0 mm) and (6) 24 vertebrae: 15 presacrals, both the first and second sacrals, and seven caudals (five from the tail basis and two from tail midlength, plus three hemal archs).