First Complete Checklist of Turks and Caicos Reptiles Published After 20 Years

A researcher at the University of North Carolina Asheville has published the first comprehensive checklist of the native terrestrial reptiles of the Turks and Caicos Islands, drawing on 20 years of fieldwork. The study, led by Professor R. Graham Reynolds of UNC Asheville's Department of Biology, appears in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The checklist documents 11 native reptile species across the archipelago's Turks and Caicos Banks, eight of which are found nowhere else on Earth, while two more are represented by their own endemic subspecies. It combines published research through 2026 with original field data Reynolds collected between 2006 and 2025, including original photographs, distribution information and conservation assessments for every species.

Reynolds began studying the islands' reptiles in 2006, during his first year of graduate school, working alongside Dr. Glenn Gerber of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. "This quickly turned into a passion, and I have made studying these animals the focus of my career," he said. Now in the 20th year of this fieldwork, having published dozens of papers on the region's reptiles, Reynolds said he felt it was time to bring everything learned together, since no single resource had previously combined photographs, distribution maps, natural history and conservation status for every species.

Seven of the 11 native species are of conservation concern. The Turks Island skink is critically endangered and may now survive as a single protected population, while the Turks and Caicos iguana, classified as endangered, has been lost from around 90% of its historical range. Introduced predators, particularly feral cats and rats, are identified as the main cause of these declines, alongside habitat loss and road mortality.

The study also revises the taxonomy of the curly-tailed lizard, recommending that six previously recognized subspecies be reduced to two, reflecting recent genetic evidence.