Two new lizards species have been discovered in a very remote section of Queensland, Australia by researchers with James Cook University. The lizards
Two new lizards species have been discovered in a very remote section of Queensland, Australia by researchers with James Cook University. The lizards are named the Cape Melville rainbow skink (Carlia wundalthini) and the Cape Melville bar-lipped skink (Glaphyromorphus othelarrni). Their names were chosen from the area in which they were found and their scientific names were chosen by Aboriginal leaders in respect of the traditional owners of the land in which they were found.
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The Cape Melville rainbow skink measures about 10 cm in length and is active during the day and the bar lipped skink is about twice as large at 20cm and comes out at dusk, according to James Cook University researcher Dr. Conrad Hoskin.
“I was walking around on my first day there and saw a lizard and thought ‘wow, that’s something different,’ Hoskin told Guardian Australia. “And then that night I saw something moving in some mulch by a boulder, I pulled it out and it was another new kind of lizard.”
Discoveries in the area are nothing new to Hoskin, as he has discovered three other reptile species in the same rainforest plateau and lowland area of Cape Melville last year; a boulder frog, leaf-tailed gecko and a golden lizard.
John B. Virata keeps a ball python, two corn snakes, a king snake, and two leopard geckos. His first snake, a California kingsnake, was purchased at the Pet Place in Westminster, CA for $5. His first pet reptile was a green anole that arrived in a small box via mail order. Follow him on Twitter @johnvirata
