Roatan anole
Anolis roatanensis
Where to see it
Gardens, scrub and forest edge, among the commoner anoles. In the field it is hard to tell apart from them.
When
All year
Status
Endangered. Found nowhere else on Earth.
A small anole lizard described in 2001 and listed as Endangered. Anoles are the little lizards doing push-ups on fence posts and flashing a colored throat fan, the dewlap, at rivals and mates, and Roatan has several. This is the one that exists nowhere else.
In the field it is hard to tell from the commoner anoles that share the island's gardens and scrub, and even specialists lean on the dewlap color and scale details to be sure. That is part of why it is so poorly known: nobody counts what they cannot name. If you photograph an anole on Roatan, an upload to iNaturalist is a small, real contribution to what is known about it.