Santo Stefano lizard

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Santo Stefano lizard
Conservation status
Extinct (1965)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Lacertidae
Genus:	Podarcis
Species:	P. siculus
Subspecies:	†P. s. sanctistephani
Trinomial name
†Podarcis siculus sanctistephani (Mertens, 1926)
Synonyms[1]
Lacerta sicula sancti-stephani Mertens, 1926

The Santo Stefano lizard (Podarcis siculus sanctistephani^[1]) lived on Santo Stefano Island, a small island near Ventotene in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy, and part of the Pontine Islands. It became extinct in 1965, probably caused by feral cats and a snake species. These animals destroyed almost the whole population and any survivors seem to have interbred with an introduced subspecies. An epidemic of an unknown pathogen that followed wiped out the majority of the population and contributed to this subspecies' extinction.

• List of extinct animals of Europe

• David Day, 1981, The Doomsday Book of Animals, Ebury Press, London.

• The Sixth Extinction - Santo Stefano Lizard