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[Scott W]

CNAH Board Member Discovers New Species of Lizard

Lawrence Journal World, Lawrence, Kansas
11 October 2005

What's black, white, red and green all over? It's something Avila University
professor and CNAH Board member Robert Powell will announce sometime in
December.

Powell, a biologist who has been at the Kansas City-based university for 30
years, and Robert Henderson, curator at the Milwaukee Public Museum, have
discovered a new species of lizard in the south Caribbean that Powell will
get to
name in the December issue of the Caribbean Journal of Science.

Powell, who recruits students from around the country each summer to take a
research excursion with him to the Caribbean, found the new reptile in June
after
being tipped off about its existence. The Reverend Bob de Silva, an amateur
naturalist from St. Vincent who had visited Union Island, had been the only
person to ever report seeing the geckolike lizard, and told Powell about it.

"It is indeed spectacular in its appearance," Powell said from Guana Island
in the
British Virgin Islands, where he is studying other reptiles. "The lizard is
greenish
with bright red, black and white spots that seem to jump out at you when he
is
placed against a plain background. But in its natural habitat, it is hard to
see."
Powell said the lizard, which is about the size of half a cigarette,
probably has
been seen before and mistaken for a bug. He said he was excited about his
discovery, but his reaction was muted somewhat because he knew the lizard
existed, and where to look for it. He said he isn't sure, but thinks the
lizard fits
the criteria for an endangered species. One example of the still-nameless
vertebrate has been preserved at the Kansas University Natural History
Museum.
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