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Originally Posted by Karen Hulvey
It may fit the criteria for an endangered species and there may only be a handfull of them left on the face of the planet but one of them still had to be killed in the name of science.
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Such is the way of classification. Under the formal rules of naming a species a type specimen must be preserved and be available for examination later by future taxonomists or scientists. The main reasons are any written type description has inherent short comings. They will, to a degree, be subjective and cannot predict and provide answers for all possible questions that may be raised by future biologists.
Normally multiple specimens are preserved. One is designated the holotype, which is the main representative of the species, then one or more syntypes, paratypes, or isotypes, depending on the specific case, to cover the event of loss or destruction of the holotype.
It is a beautiful little lizard. I would hope there are actually more of them than is realized.