The island of Bermuda (54 km2
) is the isolated
remnant of a former volcanic peak situated in the
North Atlantic about 1000 km east-southeast of Cape
Hatteras, North Carolina. It had no connection or
greater proximity to other land masses and would
always have presented a difficult landfall for reptilian
colonists. Only two natural colonizations of Bermuda
by terrestrial reptiles are known: the scincid lizard
Eumeces longirostris, which survives today, and the
tortoise Hesperotestudo bermudae known from a single
fossil. Throughout the Pleistocene, Bermuda was
affected by periodic fluctuations in sea level that
altered land area by an order of magnitude, causing
dramatic and repeated restructuring of terrestrial
ecosystems. The evolutionary history of Bermudan
reptiles can be understood only in light of these
geological events.