List of reptiles of Puerto Rico explained

This is a list of the reptiles of the archipelago of Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican archipelago consists of the main island of Puerto Rico, two island municipalities, Vieques and Culebra, one minor uninhabited island, Mona and several smaller islands and cays.

This list only includes animals with verifiable established populations in the archipelago of Puerto Rico. Many species of reptiles are imported, both legally (mainly through the pet industry) and illegally, to the archipelago of Puerto Rico every year, with some of these species being subsequently released into the wild. However, non-viable introduced species do not constitute a breeding population and hence they lack inclusion in this list.

The following tags help provide additional information regarding the status of each species.

• Endemic species
• Introduced species
• Extinct species
• Extirpated species

Reptiles

Family Emydidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Trachemys stejnegeri stejnegeri	Puerto Rican slider	X
Trachemys scripta elegans	Red-eared slider	X
Trachemys decorata	Hispaniolan slider	X
Chrysemys picta picta	Eastern painted turtle	X

Family Dermochelyidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Dermochelys coriacea coriacea	Leatherback sea turtle	X	X

Family Cheloniidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Caretta caretta caretta	Loggerhead sea turtle	X
Chelonia mydas mydas	Green sea turtle	X	X	X	X	X
Eretmochelys imbricata imbricata	Hawksbill sea turtle		X	X	X	X
Lepidochelys olivacea	Olive ridley sea turtle	X

Family Testudinidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Geochelone monensis					X
Geochelone denticulata	South American yellow-footed tortoise	X

Infraorder Gekkota

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Hemidactylus mabouia	Tropical house gecko	X	X	X	X
Phyllodactylus wirshingi	Puerto Rican leaf-toed gecko	X				X
Sphaerodactylus nicholsi	Nichols' dwarf gecko	X				X
Sphaerodactylus townsendi	Townsend's dwarf gecko	X		X		X
Sphaerodactylus roosevelti	Roosevelt's dwarf gecko	X				X
Sphaerodactylus gaigeae	Gaige's dwarf gecko	X		X		X
Sphaerodactylus klauberi	Puerto Rico upland dwarf gecko	X
Sphaerodactylus monensis	Mona dwarf gecko				X
Sphaerodactylus levinsi	Desecheo dwarf gecko					X
Sphaerodactylus grandisquamis	Big-scaled dwarf gecko	X
Sphaerodactylus inigoi	Vieques dwarf gecko		X	X
Sphaerodactylus macrolepis	Big-scaled dwarf gecko		X			X
Sphaerodactylus micropithecus	Monito dwarf gecko					X

Family Teiidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Pholidoscelis exsul	Greater Puerto Rican ameiva	X	X	X		X
Pholidoscelis wetmorei	Blue-tailed ground lizard	X				X
Pholidoscelis alboguttatus	Mona ameiva				X
Pholidoscelis desechensis	Desecheo ameiva					X

Family Scincidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Spondylurus nitidus	Puerto Rican skink	X	X			X
Spondylurus culebrae	Culebra skink		X			X
Spondylurus monae	Mona skink				X
Spondylurus monitae	Monito skink					X

Family Anguinidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Diploglossus pleii	Puerto Rican galliwasp	X

Family Iguanidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Anolis cuvieri	Puerto Rican giant anole	X		X
Anolis roosevelti	Culebra Island giant anole		X
Anolis occultus	Puerto Rican twig anole	X
Anolis evermanni	Emerald anole	X
Anolis stratulus	Barred anole	X	X	X		X
Anolis gundlachi	Yellow-chinned anole	X
Anolis cristatellus	Crested anole	X	X	X		X
Anolis desechensis	Desecheo anole					X
Anolis cooki	Cook's anole	X				X
Anolis monensis	Mona anole				X	X
Anolis pulchellus	Puerto Rican anole	X	X	X		X
Anolis krugi	Upland grass anole	X
Anolis poncensis	Dryland grass anole	X
Cyclura pinguis	Anegada ground iguana	X
Cyclura portoricensis	Puerto Rican iguana	X
Cyclura nubila nubila	Cuban ground iguana	X
Cyclura cornuta stejnegeri	Mona ground iguana				X
Iguana iguana	Green iguana	X	X			X
Iguana delicatissima	Lesser Antillean iguana	X

Family Amphisbaenidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Amphisbaena bakeri	Baker's worm lizard	X
Amphisbaena caeca	Puerto Rican worm lizard	X
Amphisbaena schmidti	Schmidt's worm lizard	X
Amphisbaena xera	Puerto Rican dryland worm lizard	X				X

Family Typhlopidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Typhlops platycephalus	Flat-headed blindsnake	X		X
Typhlops richardi	Richard's blind snake	X	X
Typhlops rostellatus	Puerto Rican wetland blind snake	X
Typholps granti	Grant's blind snake	X
Typhlops monensis	Mona blind snake				X
Typhlops hypomethes	Coastal blindsnake	X

Family Boidae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Chilabothrus inornatus	Puerto Rican boa	X
Chilabothrus monensis	Mona Island boa				X
Chilabothrus granti	Virgin Island tree boa		X			X

Family Colubridae

width=25%	Species	width=25%	Common name	Puerto Rico	Culebra	Vieques	Mona	Other
Borikenophis portoricensis	Puerto Rican racer	X	X	X	X	X
Magliophis exiguus	Puerto Rican garden snake	X	X			X

See also

• Fauna of Puerto Rico
• List of endemic fauna of Puerto Rico
• List of endemic flora of Puerto Rico
• List of mammals of Puerto Rico
• List of birds of Puerto Rico
• List of amphibians of Puerto Rico

Footnotes

1. This species is endemic to the archipelago of Puerto Rico.
2. This species is extinct.
3. This species no longer occurs in the archipelago Puerto Rico but other populations exist elsewhere.
4. This species was introduced to the archipelago of Puerto Rico.
5. This species occurs in Caja de Muertos Island.
6. This species occurs in Cayo Batata.
7. This species occurs in Cayo Santiago.
8. This species occurs in the island of Desecheo.
9. This species occurs in Magueyes island.
10. This species occurs in the island of Monito.
11. This species occurs in the island of Culebrita.

References

• Book: Rivero , Juan A. . 1998 . Los anfibios y reptiles de Puerto Rico . University of Puerto Rico Press . . 978-0-8477-0243-5 . registration .
• Web site: The Herpetofauna of Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico . Rios López . Neftalí . 10 April 2003 . Naval Security Group Activity Sabana Seca . https://web.archive.org/web/20050318130553/http://www.cnnet.upr.edu/ecologia/nsga_web/Herp_web_ss/index.htm . dead . March 18, 2005 . March 30, 2006.
• Web site: Puerto Rico's Anoles . March 31, 2006 . Perez i Gorgoy . Lluis . 2000 . Caribbean Anole Database . Lluis Perez i Gorgoy . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060311095941/http://www.homestead.com/Anolis/puertolist.html . March 11, 2006 .
• Heatwole . Harold . Sade . Donald S. . Hildreth . R. . March 1963 . Herpetogeography of Puerto Rico I. Herpetofauna of Cayo Santiago and Cayo Batata . dead . Caribbean Journal of Science . 3 . 1 . 1–5 . 0008-6452 . https://web.archive.org/web/20050119085411/http://www.uprm.edu/publications/cjs/VOL03/P001-006.PDF . 2005-01-19.
• Harold . Heatwole . Richard . Levins . Michael D. . Byer . July 1981 . Biogeography of the Puerto Rican bank . Atoll Research Bulletin . 251 . 1–54 . 10.5479/si.00775630.251.1. 45726059 . 5 February 2020.
• Rios López . Neftalí . Thomas . Richard . 2007 . A new species of palustrine Eleutherodactylus (Anura: Leptodactylidae) from Puerto Rico . Zootaxa . 1512 . 51–64 . 10.11646/zootaxa.1512.1.3 .
• Pinto . Brendan . James . Titus-McQuillan . Daza . Juan . Gamble . Tony . March 2019 . Persistence of a geographically-stable hybrid zone in Puerto Rican dwarf geckos. . Journal of Heredity . 110 . 5 . 523–534 . 10.1093/jhered/esz015. 30859222 .
• Daza . Juan . Pinto . Brendan . Herrera-Martinez . Alexandra . Garcia . Luis . Scantlebury . Daniel . Perry . Gad . Balaraman . Rajesh . Gamble . Tony . December 2019 . The sprightly little sphaerodactyl: Systematics and biogeography of the Puerto Rican dwarf geckos Sphaerodactylus (Gekkota, Sphaerodactylidae). . Zootaxa . 2712 . 2 . 151–201 . 10.11646/zootaxa.4712.2.1. 32230683.
• Reynolds . R. Graham . Henderson . Robert . September 2018 . Boas of the world (superfamily Booidea): A checklist with systematic, taxonomic, and conservation assessments. . Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology . 162 . 1–58 . 10.3099/MCZ48.1. free.