Three new species of ‘dragon-esque’ woodlizards discovered

[Omaha Steve]

Source: National Monitor

By Justin Beach

Researchers working in the Andean cloudforests of Ecuador and Peru have discovered three new species of woodlizards. Since 1881 a total of 15 species of woodlizard have been identified in lowland tropical rainforests in northern parts of South America and Panama.

The species, also known as “Dwarf dragons” are brightly coloured to blend into their tropical environment. They range in size from 3 to 6 inches long. Once thought to be a group with low species diversity, the recent find brings the total to five new species in the last three years and eight new species since 2008. The recent rate of discovery suggest that there are still more wood lizard species waiting to be found.

“I started working with woodlizards in 2006 as part of my postdoc at the Smithsonian Institution under the direction of Kevin de Queiroz. At that time only seven species of woodlizards had been described, and they were recognized in the literature as one of the less diverse groups of South American lizards. During the last few years we doubled the number of known species of woodlizards, showing that the diversity of these conspicuous reptiles had been underestimated. That more than half of the diversity of a group of large, dragon-looking reptiles from South America has been discovered in recent years should be heard by people in charge of conservation and funding agencies,” said Omar Torres-Carvajal of the Museo de Zoología QCAZ in Ecuador in a statement.

Torres-Carvajal is one of the authors of a paper describing the animals in the open source journal ZooKeys.

FULL story at link. Photo from the ZooKeys: http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=5032



Figure 2.
Paratype (QCAZ 6671, adult female, SVL = 132 mm) of Enyalioides altotambo. Photograph by Luis A. Coloma.


Read more: http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/06/three-new-species-of-dragon-esque-woodlizards-discovered/

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So beautiful.

[NYC_SKP]

1. K/R for the Woodlizards! I want to name that one Randy!

Or, maybe Steve!



Howyadoin, OS?

[Omaha Steve]

3. Let me think about it

I'll get back to you.

[shenmue]

2. Wowsers!

Pretty colors.

[840high]

7. Nature beats any artist.

[antiquie]

4. Way cool, thanks.

[marym625]

5. Cool!

I love when they discover new things.

Thanks for the post, OS!

[freshwest]

6. Proving true this saying, that I've never forgotten:

This curious world which we inhabit is more wonderful than it is convenient, more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.

~ Henry David Thoreau

[NCarolinawoman]

9. That's a great quote!

[freshwest]

10. I carried around a soft bound edition of Eliot Porter's illustrated book,

In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World.

It was a Sierra Club book and although that's not one of the images, it is something to meditate on daily.

Thoreau's writings were taught at my public high school 'back in the day,' and influenced me along with Lao Tzu.

I'm reading some of Derrick Jensen's books again, too.

[AnnieBW]

8. Fire Lizards?

Like on Pern?