A new species of gecko ‘looks like a small dragon’ has been discovered on the uninhabited island of Queensland in the US. Australia.

The new lizard has been spotted on Shofel Island, about 50 kilometers off the coast of Mackay, a city in north Queensland.

A small sauroid similar to ours samiyamichidiscovered Associate Professor Conrad Hoskin, a terrestrial species ecologist at James Cook University, during a four-day exploration of the island, “in a raging habitat full of figs and ferns.”

“It’s extremely exciting – every biologist’s dream is to find a new specieshe said, naming the little lizard Phyllurus fimbriatus.

The carnivorous reptile, described in an article in the scientific journal Zootaxa, is about 15 centimeters long, from the snout to the end of its spiny tail.”

“Leaf-tailed geckos look like splashers, but they also have white stripes on their tails—this one is V-shaped. It has a very distinctive pattern and a nice big beak. It looks like a little dragon or something,” Hoskin said.

“Like a Little Dragon”

The scientist identified about 30 species during his fieldwork and calculated that the newly discovered gecko covers a total area of ​​less than one square kilometer.

“It is only found in the wetter, more tropical and rocky areas of the Schofel,” he explains.

The coast of the wild island is dotted with granite rocks, and its steep mountain slopes are covered with tropical vegetation.

“The lizard can’t stand the hot conditions that exist on most of the island – it needs good shelter from the heat and humidity,” Hoskin notes, adding that the gecko probably spends its day hiding under massive rocks. go hunting at night spiders, insects and small geckos.

“Australia hasn’t been explored very much, so it’s very interesting when we find a distinctly new large creature right away – like a lizard, a frog or a bird – these days,” he notes.

Scafell Island is protected as part of the South Cumberland Islands National Park, however wildfires and invasive species may threaten this new species.

Source: Guardian