Australia is famous for its distinctive creatures, many of which live exclusively on the giant island, and today it was announced that a new animal had been discovered on an uninhabited island belonging to Australia.
According to the British newspaper “The Guardian”, a new type of lizard, resembling a small dragon, with a pointed face and a spiny leaf-shaped tail, was discovered on an uninhabited island in Queensland.
The lizard was found on Scoville Island, a rugged island about 50 kilometers offshore from Mackay, north Queensland.
Professor Asok Konrad Hoskin, a terrestrial ecologist at James Cook University, came across the lizard in a “deep, rocky habitat covered with fig trees and ferns” during a four-day survey of the island.
New Australian lizard
“It’s very exciting,” he said. “It’s every biologist’s dream to find a new kind of animal.”
Hoskin named the animal Vailurus fimbriatus, a scientific name that refers to the tips of the spines around the lizard’s tail.
The new carnivorous reptile is about 15 cm long, from nose to tail.
“These leaf-tailed lizards look like spotted rocks but they have little white stripes on their tail,” Hoskin said.
“It’s really very smooth for a paper tail, which is usually a bit more bushy,” he added. “He has a really distinctive look…a big face and a nice pointed mouth.”
The scientist described the new lizard as “a little dragon or something”.
Hoskins said the leaf-tailed lizard, found on Scoville Island, may be one of the last distinctive vertebrates to be found in Australia.