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Posted by paalexan on February 21, 2003 at 13:39:19:
In Reply to: Xenosaurus grandis and former X. rackhami taxon question posted by 59herps on February 20, 2003 at 00:34:49:
:Ok.... Here is my question. Xenosaurus grandis and Xenosaurus rackhami were considered seperate species until recently. Xenosaurus rackhami had a subspecies called X. r. sanmartinensis. This subspecies is very similair to rackhami differing mainly in scalation. It has become a subspecies due to population isolation in the crater of a volcanoe. When rackhami became a subspecies of X. grandis X. r. sanmartinensis became X. g. sanmartinensis. But technically isn't sanmartinensis a subsub species of a sub species of a species? Since it descended from rackhami which descended from grandis, instead of from the normal grandis.
Do you have a citation for this name change? 'Cause I don't know much about Xenosaurus... but www.reptile-database.org's reference (which, oddly, does not include a citation) indicates that this the two species were synonymized, rather than Xenosaurus rackhami being reduced to subspecific status. This would mean that the subspecies of Xenosaurus rackhami were simply transferred to Xenosaurus grandis, so what is now Xenosaurus grandis rackhami was Xenosaurus rackhami rackhami, rather than Xenosaurus rackhami.
Patrick Alexander
