Abstract— A small collection of lizard bones was recovered during extensive archaeological excavations on Ebon Atoll, Marshall Islands. Most of the bones are from the large terrestrial skink Eugongylus albofasciolatus , the only lizard known in the literature from the atoll. The oldest bones date to 1560 + 70 years BP. Represented by a single bone each are the skink Emoia cf. E . arnoensis or E . boettgeri , the House gecko Hemidactylus frenatus , and the Oceanic gecko Gehyra oceanica . The House gecko was found in the oldest prehistoric strata, the Oceanic gecko in late prehistoric, and the Emoia in historic. Human settlement of the Marshall Islands occurred 2000 years BP following regression on-set of Mid-Holocene High (MHH) sea-level. Lizards probably did not begin colonizing the islands until this same time. Introduction Pacific island lizards occur on nearly every emergent piece of land that remains dry at high tide. Numerous species and populations, especially small geckos and skinks, probably reached their destinations as passive stowaways beginning with human settlement (Austin 1999, Case & Bolger 1991). Other species that colonized by natural dispersal from one island group to another typically have more circumscribed distributions. (Crombie & Pregill 1999, Crombie & Steadman 1987, Pregill 1993). Actual documentation of prehistoric and prehuman occurrences of lizards on Pacific islands comes from the bones preserved in archaeological (cultural) and paleontological (noncultural) sites. In most instances bone records date from about the mid-Holocene. In Micronesia, lizard fossils are known only from the Mariana Islands (Pregill 1998) and from a few late prehistoric sites in Palau (Pregill & Steadman 2000). Herein we discuss a small collection of lizard bones screened from prehistoric cultural deposits on Ebon Atoll, Marshall Islands. Scattered across 2 million km
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