Two and a half hours after departing Miami, the ferry gently nudges the dock on North Bimini. This was Jake Scott’s first trip and the first time I had visited since 1973—40 years prior. On that earlier venture I had found every one of the 16 species of reptiles and amphibians (with the establishing of the Amerafrican House Gecko there are now 17 taxa) in less than a day of looking. I couldn’t help but wondering what changes had been wrought in the ensuing four decades.

Disembarking, clearing customs and immigration, and checking into the hotel took less than a half an hour. Even before we had cleared customs we had seen the first lizard species, the Bimini Curly-tail, Leiocephalus carinatus coryi.